More Light! 

Luftwerk x Aram Saroyan

The single word poem “lighght,” by Aram Saroyan, is the inspiration for Luftwerk’s site-specific installation at the Poetry Foundation. Saroyan describes his poem, a seminal work of minimalism, as operating like “electricity,” instant and continuous. According to Saroyan, “‘lighght’ is something you see rather than read…. Even a five-word poem has a beginning, middle, and end. A one-word poem doesn’t. You can see it all at once.” Luftwerk’s immersive interpretation brings viewers inside an ever shifting prism of colored light, transforming the Poetry Foundation gallery into a dynamic lightbox. 

“Mehr Licht” (“More light”), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s last words on his deathbed, provides a historic reference to the minimal gesture of Saroyan. Throughout his life, Goethe had a deep fascination with the physical and metaphorical effects of light on humans. While he is best remembered for his literary works, he believed his scientific treatise The Theory of Colours, published in 1810, to be his most important work. Under Goethe’s system, colors are different admixtures of “properties” we call “light” and “dark.”

Light and color are the core elements in Luftwerk’s artistic practice. Their interest is in the power of light as a crucial element of vision, whose dynamic relationship to color perception is explored. Through the use of various modalities—such as projection of videos, shadow casting, among others—they integrate light into each project to explore its fleeting and changing nature.

“lighght” was written by Saroyan in 1965 and first published in 1966. It became controversial after its inclusion in The American Literary Anthology, an early recipient of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funding. The Paris Review issued the poem as part of its “Print Series” of limited edition art prints in 1989.

Aram Saroyan is the author of Still Night in L.A.: A Detective Novel, as well as many other books of prose and poetry. He is featured in the documentary film One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur, and his comments appear in the oral biographies George Being George: George Plimpton’s Life and Salinger. In recent years he has worked primarily as an artist, with work featured in museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, India, and the Middle East, and in Los Angeles in one-man shows at the As-Is Gallery and the Francis Gallery. For the Hammer Museum’s Biennial, Made in L.A., Saroyan wrote the subtitle: a, the, though, only. His Complete Minimal Poems received a William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and is now available on Kindle.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a preeminent figure in German literature. Poet, playwright, and novelist, Goethe was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1749. He is most well known for his epic poem Faust (1808), based on the legend popularized by Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus. The poem depicts a young scholar who, frustrated by the limits to his education, power, and enjoyment of life, engages the assistance of the devil at the cost of his soul. In Faust, Goethe draws extensively from Christian, medieval, and classical sources, complicating the original legend’s dichotomous struggle between good and evil and questioning what constitutes ultimate human fulfillment. Goethe had a profound impact on later literary movements, including Romanticism and expressionism, and made important contributions to philosophical and naturalist schools of thought.

Luftwerk: Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero are artists based in Chicago and the founding principles of Luftwerk Studio. Recent exhibitions of their work have been organized by the Chicago Botanic Garden, Volume Gallery, Chicago Cultural Center, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred University, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens, and Mattress Factory. They have also realized installation projects for significant architectural sites, including the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Barcelona Pavilion, and Edith Farnsworth House. They are the recipients of numerous awards, including those from the AIA Chicago, Graham Foundation, and Illinois Arts Council.