SFX: Buzzing and sputtering of a fluorescent bulb turning on.  

NARRATOR:  

At first, it might not look like there’s a lot here. Just this…lightbulb, oddly installed. But stare at this for long enough, and you might start to see some interesting effects.  

SFX: Music 

NARRATOR:  

Check out how the light dances around the room. The way the colors seem to change.  

This is Dan Flavin’s world. He’s known for making sculptures out of lights. Specifically fluorescent lights. The domain of dreary office spaces, cheap apartments, and places like… Walmart. Why would an artist focus on something so mundane? We asked Tiffany Bell, who worked with Flavin for many years.  

TIFFANY BELL:  

The use of light denotes some sort of spiritual presence sometimes in painting. So I think it was the cross between the mundane and the kind of spiritual that attracted him.  

SFX: buzzing returns  

NARRATOR:  

If you can, check it out from different angles. See how the light bounces off the wall and spills onto the floor. Where does this work even begin and end? 

BELL:  

It does make you feel present in time and space. His work carries in it this kind of temporality — it’s there, when it’s on; and then when it’s off, it’s not there.  

NARRATOR: 

So here’s a question – if someone turns the light switch off —  

SFX: Music ends, silent pause 

does it stop being art? 

SFX: buzzing goes out, as if light switch was turned off