Jenifer Wightman /
Backlight
Everyday, New Yorkers flip fossil fueled switches. These invisible streams of electrons run our computers, escalators, elevators, fans and lights. If there is one ritual common among all New Yorkers, it is energy use. Fossil fuels come primarily from solar energy captured by carboniferous era plants and animals. We are burning millions of years of fossilized sunlight in 200 years of industrialized society. For AiOP, decal images of carboniferous fossils are placed on lighting fixtures on 14th Street originating at the East River Generating Station. Examples of the fossils to be backlit are horse-tails, club mosses, scale trees, and ferns.
October 1-10
Originating from the East River Power Generating Station and running along 14th Street (decals of) fossils can be found on light fixtures illuminated by the light of their own combustion.
artist info
Jenifer Wightman is a research scientist specializing in greenhouse gas accounting and life cycle analysis for assessing sustainable bioenergy production systems. She began making science-based conceptual art in 2002. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
