Write a two to three paragraph reflection on the life and work of Thomas Wilfred as you understand it from the documentary and the text. Reflect on the significance of his work, his conceptual framework(s), and his technical process.
Thomas Wilfred’s Lumia is an art piece like no other. Inspired by Louis-Bertrnad Castel’s clavecin oculaire, Wilfred was set on creating a piece of art that could become a medium to express the abstract concept of light. By using the clavecin as a foundation for his own machine, Wilfred’s Clavilux made use of modern technology in the form of light bulbs, translucent colored glass, and reflective surfaces. Along with his Clavilux, Wilfred’s later iterations, ranging from small refrigerator sized installations to large cinematic screens, were focused on “more emphatically defining Lumia in terms of light, which was not simply the “medium” of his art form”.
When watching and reading about Wilfred, I began to understand his obsession over the medium of light as a form of expression. In the documentary at 45:55 and 1:18:07, I began to realise that Lumia is work of art that cannot be completely conveyed in words. Reminiscent of an Aurora, the movement and color expressed through light are unmatched to any other medium, such as painting or photography. It made me feel as if some aspect of nature had been contained within a single installation. I believe that visual art such as Wilfred’s is one that must be experienced in person, as simply watching it through a computer screen does not do the work justice.