A cascade of shattered light bulbs hangs from the ceiling in this stunning sculpture by fine art student Ashley Wallis. The artist, who created this piece for her foundation year at Sheffield Hallam University in England, aimed to explore the destructive nature of the elements–particularly fire and ice–through this sculpture. Drawing inspiration from the menacing form of tornados, Wallis strung together broken fragments of light bulbs, which she then suspended and illuminated with lights and colored gel filters.
“Tornados consist of a large mass that is suspended above the world that sends a looming threatening presence, but at the same time have a beautiful order to their chaos,” the art student says. “The shattered glass gives the sense of something fragile has been broken and is in a delicate state but at the same time is now potentially a danger.” Suspended in midair and rejuvenated with the the eerie glow of colored light, the glass shards indeed evoke the image of an elemental whirlwind frozen in time, its infinite components caught in a still tension.
