Mothlight 2

Mothlight 2 is a development from a video installation made and exhibited during 1998-99, which featured computer-generated moth flight sequences displayed on solar powered video monitors, suspended in a dynamic sculptural structure.

This new work differs from the earlier piece in a number of significant ways; the moth-flight images are projected rather than displayed on small monitors, and the supporting structural elements have been refined to present a lighter, more delicate appearance. In Mothlight 2, the image is liberated from the contained monitor screens and "thrown" via projection to be "caught" in the suspended glass panels.

In Flash Art Chiara Leoni, describes the relationship between Mothlight and Meigh-Andrews' earlier installations:

"In his research, (Meigh-Andrews) grew increasingly interested in natural images transfigured through a series of manipulations which create an artificial alchemical world. The installations of the 90's focus, lastly, on a fundamental topic- the physic flux and its parallelism with the mental flux, and the possibility that one activates the other.

(Mothlight) plays on this twofold aspect- some halogen lamps illuminate four solar panels which feed some monitors which generate some moths. The whole process is an infinite cycle that the spectator mentally builds through a linear series of logical passages. The thinking flux also establishes a connection among spatially discontinuous elements."

Chiara Leoni, Flash Art (Italy), Summer 1998. (trans. C. Cremona)

A Photographic Truth", a specially commissioned video projection on paper is currently on exhibition at the Canon Photographic Gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Meigh-Andrews is Reader in Electronic and Digital Art at the University of Central Lancashire.

Chris Meigh-Andrews

Born 1952, England. Studied film & TV at the London College of Printing, MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths.

Worked with video in a fine art context since 1977, with tapes exhibited internationally.

Since 1990 he has specialised in sculptural video installations, including commissioned and site-specific pieces, shown in the UK, Europe and Canada.

In 1994 Meigh-Andrews was Resident Artist in Electronic Imaging at Oxford Brookes University and Artist in Residence at Saw Contemporary Arts Centre in Ottawa. In 1995 he was Video Artist in Residence at Middlesbrough Gallery and Video Artist at Prema Arts Centre in Gloucestershire.