“Waterlight Graffiti” by Antonin Fourneau will be among the artwork featured at Canal Convergence.
Photo: Adrien Frappat
Antonin Fourneau
Waterlight Graffiti
On display November 8–17
Inspired by retro Lite-Brite toys, Waterlight Graffiti is an electrical canvas, where water becomes the medium to draw or write ephemeral messages of light. Visitors use paintbrushes, spray bottles, or even dampened fingers to add moisture to a wall of 32,000 LEDs, which are illuminated when they come in contact with water. When applied to the frame of any individual LED, water creates an electric bridge, conducting the electricity required to light the embedded LED. The brightness varies by how much water is applied. Waterlight Graffiti is more than 5 feet tall and 26 feet wide, allowing ample space for numerous water artists to create their own waterlight designs.
The Story of Water
For centuries, alchemists endeavored to turn lead into gold. With Waterlight Graffiti, Antonin Fourneau has sought to turn water into light. To use water—which has neither shape nor color—to draw light is a magical experience. By mixing a natural element and technology, Waterlight Graffiti’s users can even play with evaporation speed or the weather, when stormy days turn raindrops into fireworks of damp LEDs.
Artist Talk
Antonin Fourneau | Waterlight Graffiti
Based in Paris, France, Antonin Fourneau is a professor of new media design at EnsAD Paris who creates interactive art that references popular culture.
Friday, November 15, 2019, 6:00 – 6:30 p.m. | Free
At Waterlight Graffiti
Northeast Canal
approximately:
7135 E. Camelback Road, #195
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Biography
Born in Marseille, France, Antonin Fourneau is a professor of new media design at EnsAD Paris. As an artist, Fourneau creates interactive art that references popular culture. In 2005, he was part of a collaborative project about early 20th-century funfairs called Eniarof. In 2012, he created the popular Waterlight Graffiti, which is still exhibited around the world today. And during a residency in New Zealand in 2017, he developed a sound-sensitive wall called Sonoscriptum. Fourneau’s has shown his work through the world, from his native France to China, Cuba, Germany, Guinea, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, and various locales in the United States.
Social Media
Facebook: @antonin.fourneau
Instagram: @antonin_fourneau
Twitter: @AntoninFourneau
Vimeo: @antoninfourneau