Roots of the Niteshade Family

For the Winter Light exhibition, Matthew presents Roots of the Nightshade Family, an installation of over one hundred red light bulbs hanging from a tall Cottonwood tree in the Park. Initially, the piece resembles a tree adorned for the holidays, but both the scale and the composition are unusual. The brilliant, over-sized red bulbs are arranged in spare clusters that hang from the tree’s limbs on thick black cords. The lights appear as strange winter-born fruits brightly populating an otherwise barren tree. With the movement of the wind through the branches, the installation creates an illuminated pattern of red drops undulating in the night sky.