Gallery Guide: Tension by Scott Young

TENSION Clear Glass Tube, neon gas, sandbags, earth, electronics, sound “Tension” is a word plagued with duality; simultaneously meaning physical tautness as if with a rope and a state of emotional strain. In this exhibition, Scott Young’s Tension lures the visitor into a shadowed maze of neon mystically bent into dangling “ropes” of illuminated glass.

The glowing cables defy the physics of their medium and appear to loosely hang on mechanical pulley systems, evocative of machinery used in the mining age of Summit County and sourced from the same era as the 1892 Old Masonic Hall building in which it hangs.

Young’s work confuses the senses and invites us to question what in our life appears vital and warm, but secretly possesses a tenuous fragility that only survives through devoted care. For the artist, neon is an anthropomorphic medium that represents human beings and their relationships. The bright neon light emanating from the glass tubes is the result of the molecules of neon inside being excited by electricity

and reacting; a reaction of attraction and stimulation like that felt at the onset of a romantic relationship.

On the first floor, sparing beams of light shine out the gallery windows, luring those from outside into this meditation on warmth, beauty, love, and loneliness. As one enters the great hall upstairs, the meditation becomes a crowded party full of friends, strangers, lovers, enemies, and thwarted paramours. The configuration of the neon evokes physical groupings of human beings, while the bright lights that fill the space confound one’s ability to recognize the fragility that supplants such strength. The neon “ropes” in this space are suspended and eventually appear to be held taut by the weight of sandbags on the floor.

The room is filled with a steady pulse of 7.83 Hz sound – the same sound resonating at the extremely low frequency electromagnetic field that exists in a cavity formed between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere. In this cavity, electrical discharges occur daily as a result of thousands of lightning storms. Electricity is constantly exciting and attracting itself in this place, resulting in a low ongoing hum. Utilizing an auditory component of the sound resonance of the magnetic force of the Earth itself, Tension questions how humans act as part of the connection between the earth, our engagement and attraction within it and how we identify to physical space, light and common objects.

The installation glows with an abundance of potentially contradictory meanings; the rope is both loose and taut, the light is unattainable yet is warm and intoxicating in its insatiable glow. Our unquenchable efforts to understand the basic and real while constantly questioning the layeredness of the emotions we seek to express is present in the comfort and discomfort provoked within the space.

SCOTT YOUNG Conceptual artist Scott Young works in a variety of new media including video and installation, but his primary focus is neon-based artwork. His piece “Wish You Were Here” (which also reads “Wish You Were Her”) previously graced the top of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. His critically acclaimed exhibition Gas Light

Love Bomb and most recent exhibition “Love Bully” broke new ground in both conceptual art storytelling and alternative uses of the neon medium.

Scott will participate in the WAVE festival with his new site-specific works Tension and Intermittent

Positive Reinforcement from May 30–June 2, 2019.

Instagram: scottyoung11