Le fabricates her own neon sculptures in a glass shop in Brooklyn where her body movements determine the forms. Le approaches each work in an open-ended, improvisational way that results...
Le fabricates her own neon sculptures in a glass shop in Brooklyn where her body movements determine the forms. Le approaches each work in an open-ended, improvisational way that results in a final composition reflecting the artist’s own internal image - a fusion of the somatic and psychological that is constantly changing through diligent artistic, psychoanalytic, and cultural work. The alchemy of the practice, with its illusive materials combined with the sheer physicality of production - heating and bending the glass tubes into unique shapes - matches her sensibilities.
Though wholly abstract and often resembling an asemic script or written language, the resultant shapes allude most directly to the human body, its limbs, protuberances, and imperfections, plus the sensuality of the human form in general. Neon’s density of meaning - social, psychological, historical, mystical - adds an aspect of tension to the sculptures. The excess of content is at odds with the simplicity of the final form.
Because of the way that neon fabrication works, the process feels like a literal extension of Le’s body. Sculpting in neon requires a latex hose to convey breath to glass tubes as they are heated over a ribbon burner. When the tube has been rendered pliant by the heat, Le uses her own arms and hands to bend the material into angles alternately tight and fluid.
It is an arduous physical procedure that requires deep concentration and quick decisions about the shape of the tube. There is an element of the surrealist practice of automatic writing because Le does not use patterns or sketches. This results in abstract lines and shapes that could be interpreted as symbols she has subconsciously created. Often, they resemble the glyphs of an unknown language. When Le heats the delicate glass tube over the ribbon flame it becomes an extension of both her limbs and thoughts—delicate and strong, imbued with her breath.