Neon Art - leaving Las Vegas behind

Charles C. Labenz Arizona Daily Wildcat "Arc" by Michael Goodwin

That's neon for you - those glowing tubes lighting up Joe's Diner or the Desert Sands casino or the ceiling of the local dance pit. For some reason this highly technical art of combining glass tubes and rare gases to create eerie, impractical light has al ways been identified with the seedy side of town. Not bright enough to serve as normal lighting (though based on the same principles as fluorescent lights) and too glitzy for any practical purpose, neon has always been condemned to advertising or emphasis , rarely taken seriously.

Until the latest show at the Union Gallery, that is. "The 2nd Annual Self-Illuminative Glass Exhibition," appearing in the Union Gallery, features works by ASU students and international juried artists from the Glass Art Society. This deceptively simple s how takes neon very seriously indeed, without losing sight of its pop-culture roots. With a heavy emphasis on "industrial" and neo-gothic design, these pieces look like refugees from a science fiction movie's prop bin - though with a remarkable amount of polish.

Neon (rechristened "self-illuminative glass" by this exhibit) has always had "noir" (as in film noir) associations, and that fact isn't lost on these artists. Ridley Scott put neon al over the place in his future-noir film "Blade Runner" - that's probably why these sculptures evoke such a set-piece feel, as if they were pilfered props from 21st-century L.A. James Robinson's work "Point of Resistance" features a shaft of 12 neon tubes with a grotesque bulge in the middle, glowing with many subtle shades of orange, yellow and pink. Draped with torn pieces of black plastic and buzzing like some tremendous insect, the effect is half Buck Rogers/half Nine Inch Nails, and is strangely menacing.

Another piece by Robinson entitled "Sunrise from the Moon" features a sculptured disk of some opaque material with orange and violet neon shining from behind it, silhouetting it against the wall - an object that would look more at home on the Enterprise t han anywhere else.

Michael Goodwin's "Arc" is a threatening, fragile monstrosity with two twisted, zigzag tubes that end in electrodes and produce a live electric arc between them. Smelling of ozone and danger, this ghastly thing is somehow fascinating, like watching a cobr a spread its hood. Electricity, the potent force that drives our everyday lives, is made manifest and real by that tiny arc and the growling, deadly buzz.

No piece in this show is entirely static - one of the features of neon is the unsteady, flickering light it produces, and if you look closely you can see the pulses of current "race" down the transparent tubes. The characteristic "buzzing" sound comes fro m the transformers that crank up the voltage enough to cause the current to arc through the mixtures of rare gases, which then fluoresces. Working in neon demands skills not only in glass shaping ("flamework") but also a knowledge of electrical components and the properties of "noble" gases (argon, neon, xenon.)

But these sculptors don't just know how to deal with fragile, technical neon - they have also executed their surrounding frames and structures with amazing polish. Maintaining a thoroughly industrial look, a few of these pieces have a fit and finish that would allow them to stand alone even without their neon lighting. Greg Paternos contributed three metal pyramids with crystal tops and neon guts, featuring subtle Egyptian hieroglyphs etched into the surface - clean, crisp and otherworldly.

Viktor K. Surovek's pieces have a definite industrial/gothic flair, showing a skill with materials that extends far beyond just neon. Next time Marilyn Manson needs a set designer they should give him a call.

The brutal "Govern" by Byron Layhey plays with the viewer's sensibilities by using a flickering red neon tube to create the illusion of heat. Looking like a stove stolen from Orwell's "1984," this piece definitely rules its corner of the room.

The show was organized by James White, head of the ASU Neon Workshop. White's contribution to the show ("Tattered Glory") is an amazing display of glass-sculpture technique and acid political commentary.

Standing in a room full of buzzing, hissing, flickering neon sculptures is indeed a surreal experience - but is it art? True to neon's pop origins, the final effect is more atmospheric than meaningful; but in the very least these pieces help to drag neon up out of the gutter and expose it to serious examination. Perhaps in the future more art will be accompanied by the acrid smell of ozone, as yet another pop culture element is drafted into the pantheon of the arts.

"The 2nd Annual Self-Illuminative Glass Exhibition" is showing through April 17th in the Union Gallery on the first floor of the Student Memorial Union. More pieces will arrive April 11th and show through the 13th. Hours are 10-4 weekdays, 12-4 weekends.