Lucy+Jorge Orta: Light Works

Light Works is a breathtaking monograph on groundbreaking artists Lucy+Jorge Orta. Jorge Orta was one of the first artists to experiment with new media in the early 1980s, creating controversial public video installations at the height of the military dictatorship in Argentina. Experimenting with extraordinary technologies for large-scale image projection, Orta projects ephemeral images with powerful light cannons, illuminating world heritage sites and landscapes of cultural and ecological importance across the globe. The most challenging examples of these include: a projection on Machu Picchu; inside the crater of the Aso volcano, Japan the largest active volcano in the world; the troglodyte vestiges of Cappadocia in Turkey as well as religious buildings such as Chartes and Evry cathedrals in France. Essays by Gabriela Salgado and James Putnam cast further light on Lucy+Jorge Orta’s fascinating work, detailing the history and context for their practice as well as deliberating on the visual and emotional impact of the locations, the human challenge and sheer complexity behind mounting the artworks on location, looking in-depth at the visual technical and logistical facts about the making of these remarkable expeditions and the consequent works of art they have engendered.