Artist Statement

"The Dancer" is a part of a series of work which use negative body casts to generate positive images. By lighting the negative cast with neon tubing, hidden from view, the open container becomes flooded with light and, visually, becomes a positive form. The viewer, depending on his orientation, can make the image flip back and forth between the hallucinatory positive and concrete negative form.

This series of artworks are sculpted, spectral figures of light which exist somewhere in between positive and negative, hard and soft, light and dark- as if the image is a photographic negative of the object itself. Using this technique of lighting body casts, it is possible to return to traditional sculpture poses.It also allows us to reexamine how figures are created in mirror image, from the inside out. Additionally, non-traditional poses are used to generate powerful, though illusive images. For example, when viewing the sculpture "The Dancer" it is difficult to determine whether the figure is approaching or leaving.

Craig Kraft
Craig Kraft Studio
Washington, D.C.
www.craigkraftstudio.com