CityLife

Exhibition: I'm Electric You're Electric

Neon by Richard Wheater

Manchester Craft And Design Centre - until April 30, 2011

The warm glow of a neon sign might be familiar to us now as the signpost outside the local takeaway or a reminder of the dazzling streets of Las Vegas, but neon artist Richard Wheater is a sculptor keen to reinvent the humble neon tube.

“In America, students learn about neon on fine art courses,” says Richard.

“It’s just another material, like paint or ceramics. But in this country, it would be classed as a visual rather than fine art, and consequently the artists that work with it tend to design and commission neon pieces rather than make the neon themselves.”

That hands-on approach to the process, then, is part of what sets Richard apart.

Using hand-blown tubes and neon elements, which he makes in his studio and teaching space in Yorkshire (the only art studio of its kind in Europe), Richard has created five new sculptures – from modified industrial equipment to a glowing, upturned glass bird – for a show at Manchester Craft and Design Centre which question our contemporary understanding of neon glass.

In his show, I’m Electric You’re Electric, Richard utilises both our established understanding of neon to link it to its common use as an industrial material but then explores its contemporary possibilities as an expressive and captivating creative tool.

“I’m attracted to neon because it’s so exciting,” adds Richard. “You’re filling glass with gas and exciting it with electricity and the reaction mimicks the electricity you feel when you see neon lights.

“It’s no surprise that that’s exactly why neon is used for everything from strip joints to glamorous theatre signs or huge squares like Times Square or Piccadilly, or even as a vision of the future like in the  Blade Runner films.

“One critic said neon art is the ‘cheese sandwich of the art world’. But who doesn’t like a cheese sandwich?”

The works, through both familiarity and style, suggest a purposeful use of the material, but the aesthetic of the pieces is entirely in keeping with Richard’s sculptural style.

And the show is a fine fit with the Craft Centre, combining craft skills like glassmaking with contemporary ideas about art and collectables; I’m Electric You’re Electric certainly sits neatly alongside the work by the resident creatives in the Northern Quarter outlet.

Richard’s work has been largely inspired by the relationship between us and our environment, with glass and light remaining important themes and mediums.

But he also enjoys experimenting with new skills especially if they enhance the narrative of his collections.

To pass on those skills, Richard will be bringing a mobile version of his Neon Workshop classes to MMU for a three-day neon glass course from March 7.

At the end of the course, participants should be able to blow and shape glass and create functioning neon glass pieces of their own.

Free. For workshop bookings, contact the centre on 0161 832 4274.