A Chandelier For One of Many Possible Ends (2014)
Phillip Stearns
Custom light fixtures, Geiger counters
92 individual light elements each controlled by a Geiger counter. Lights flash in response to the Geiger counters detecting high energy particles of radioactivity from sources both terrestrial and cosmic. Normal levels of environmental radioactivity cause the instillation to flicker randomly. A source of contamination great enough to cause the entire chandelier to remain solidly lit would be fatal to any living thing in the room.
Installed at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY
On view through March 2015