Critical Mass

Critical Mass was an installation at Brighton University degree show 2004. For the event, I converted one of the studios into what seemed to be a store cupboard, filling it with assorted artistic detritus. Amongst stacked chairs, tables, broken artworks and used materials were a number of sculptural and textual works that acted as clues, puns and interpretations of the words critical mass.

This multiplicity of meaning (see diagram) played with the traditional role of the title as a ‘key’ to the work. The over-signification of the title conversely reinforced the core definition of Critical Mass as "the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction." Metaphorically, the words Critical Mass were the smallest amount of (fissile) material needed for a sustained interpretation.

At the centre of the storm lay a reinforced metal box, barricaded by books and texts, containing a kaleidascopic light sculpture in which magnifying glasses became anthropomorphic representations of students, artists and critics. As they crowd around the source of the light, a glowing crystal, they refract the light from the ‘critical mass’ around the mirrored safe.