Curt Gambetta Office Light

Curt Gambetta’s work in light is sited around spaces and objects that oscillate between urban dereliction and zones of speculation and potential development. Gambetta constructs lighting conditions that register either as a ghost of what lies neglected and erased, or a mirage of what might come. The installation, Office Light, is comprised of a 2×4’office ceiling grid containing 12 fluorescent troffer lights that illuminate the empty space behind Lawndale Art Center. All architectural presence is stripped away and remains only as a trace, reducing office light to its purest form of transmission. The ceiling hangs just below eye-level, disallowing pedestrian access and suggesting that it be viewed from afar, from the vantage point of the street. All aspects of construction are standardized technologies that are used in this installation in order to be easily re-constructed at other sites, within and outside Houston. In this way, the project is designed as a prototype for future illuminations.