The Light Does Not Fill the Void, It Hollows It Out is a site-specific installation in the Chapel of San Bruno, created with special attention to the unique characteristics of the place, both physical and atmospheric, and focusing on two absences to make present the past of what we can no longer see.
First, the hollow in the wall, crowned by a semicircular arch, where an image once stood for worship, has been proportionally reduced to create a small niche intended to emphasize visual silence. The viewer must kneel to discover the hidden image.
Second, my attention turns to the lack of ornamentation on the keystone of the vault, worn away over time. This crucial piece holds the chapel together.
Through the use of light, lenses, and malleable polyester, I work from the material toward the intangible, inviting the viewer to pause and contemplate the space, questioning our perception of the tactile and the immaterial, of the physical and the virtual, referring to issues related to memory, fragility, presence, and absence, the object and its appearance.
The humidity and the air stirred by visitors’ movements gradually altered the reflections on the walls and the dome throughout the exhibition. This site-specific installation was born and died in the Chapel of San Bruno. The essence of the work — the optical subtleties that only the eye can perceive — remains in the memory of the viewer.