James Harris Gallery is pleased to present several new light pieces by Claude Zervas. Investigating aspects of the natural and organic landscape, Zervas’s electronic sculptures are a perfect conceptual complement to Shaun O’Dell’s work despite the difference in medium. Whereas O’Dell works on paper, Zervas employs technology to examine the world around us.

As in the past, Zervas continues to construct sculpture with thin fluorescent lights, LED’s, wire and transformers, but now he adds LEDs and electronics to imbue the sculptures with movement. The gestures of the wires, lights, and supportive structures act as three-dimensional drawings, activating a physical space through movement and subtle shifts of light and shadow.

Previously, Zervas used technology to deconstruct the Northwest landscape. Now he turns his attention to our visceral experiences of movement. For instance, in one particular sculpture, a stacked row of lights subtly undulate and mimic the movement of a small single-celled sea creature. In another piece, Zervas more directly references the phenomenology of gestural movements displayed by simple marine life forms such as unicellular algae and jellyfish on a thick sheet of white velum.