Light Works Through January 31; Wednesday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday, 1-4 p.m. Brett Wesley Gallery, 1025 S. First St. #150, 702-433-4433.
In the super-saturated, stimuli-sodden extravaganza of Las Vegas, minimalist art has particular, understated appeal. Pasha Rafat’s Light Works, at Brett Wesley Gallery, deploys the neon tubes we know so well in geometric constructions that we discover we don’t know at all. Part sculpture, part architecture and wholly installation, Light Works is slow art—an immersive exhibition that modulates light and space before the eyes.
Prolonging the viewing time and altering the viewing space begins with altering the architecture. Rafat’s four site-generated pieces are based on two windows, a corner and a ceiling; they modify found angles and intersections, volumes and forms in various ways. Using framing, reflection, mirroring, transparency and light, Rafat tempers the space in the room, extending the art beyond the confines of the gallery walls.
Pasha Rafat's Light Works at Brett Wesley Gallery.
“Untitled W,” for example, is a red-orange wooden structure that alludes to commemorative monuments with its large, monolithic base. Instead of dull historical inscription, Rafat presents a vibrant grid of white neon. The grid, in turn, corresponds to gallery windowpanes so that the work frames the outdoors view as if it were a mullioned extension of the windows. “Untitled S” also uses a tic-tac-toe pattern of neon in a square tabletop work. Since “Untitled S” can be ogled from both sides, as well as in the glass entrances of the gallery and the studio across the hall, its doubling/tripling effect is accompanied by a substantial wow factor. “Untitled DS” adds a polished stainless-steel mirror to the materials, reflecting ceiling beams and rows of neon in geometric patterns that enhance a weirdly liquid depth of field.
The final piece, “Untitled C,” is a standout. A corner work built out from the intersecting walls, “Untitled C” consists of brackets suspending horizontal tubes of white and red-orange neon. Depending on the viewer’s position, various optical illusions come into play. The white tubes turn blue and pulse almost digitally; they frame or thread the stripes of diffuse red-orange light. From farther away the darkened rear walls seem to pull the color back, like a visual representation of gravity.
With their clean lines, neon and red-orange palette, the pieces in Light Works are coherent fellows. They reframe the space by day and vibrate into unsuspected chromatic dimensions in the evening. In aiming for purity of color and form, Rafat removes all traces of the artist’s hand, biography and personality. In its place are the objects themselves and the viewer’s relationship to them. This austerity aligns Rafat with East Coast minimalism and West Coast Light & Space movements. But it would be a mistake to stop there. Rafat’s Light Works is fresh, resonant and impressive.
