Light sculpture featured at Do Right Hall show

By JEFF MATHEIS

MARFA – The Do Right Hall will exhibit some Marfa lights of its own this weekend. The show by artists Aaron Ristau and Tony Greer showcases 36 works of light and kinetic sculpture.

Ristau resides in Loveland, Colorado but is well known to many local residents. He first visited the area on vacations while growing up in Abilene. He moved to Alpine in 1997 to attend Sul Ross State University. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in 2002 and has had many one-man shows in the Big Bend region. His work has been exhibited at the Marfa Studio of Arts, at Marfa Lights and Lamps, and has been acquired by many collectors, local and throughout the country.

Ristau has been back to Marfa each year since his departure to complete commissions for Marfa residences. His newest works have been built specifically for the Do Right Hall show, Fulgora’s Illumination, Science = Art.

His work incorporates found technological equipment since his involvement in local, state and commercial auctions starting in 1997.

He crafts his sculptures from all manner of obsolete scientific apparatus and media machines, including discarded medical equipment and a Teletype machine.

One piece includes communication equipment from the Alpine airport. He repurposes these discarded objects into functional equipment with contemporary purpose such as fully functional computer mice.

Do Right Hall owners Buck Johnston and Camp Bosworth have supported Ristau’s work over the years.

Greer is the owner of Tornado Gallery and Special Effects Neon in Lubbock.

He has been fascinated with light and electricity since he was a child. He has become a master of neon and xenon gas lighting since he bought his own neon shop 31 years ago – the same space that his father and grandfather have done blacksmith and iron working starting in 1946.

Greer combines furnace blown glass with the inert gas and colored phosphors usually found in neon tubes to create internally illuminated glasswork.

Viewers of his work will notice the craftsmanship of the blown glass, the bright colors seen locally in Dan Flavin works, and the playful interaction of the plasma globes seen in the science museums of childhood.

The Marfa Lights Festival is appropriate timing for Greer’s work. His plasma globes elicit the feeling of unexplainable wonder common to viewers of the Marfa Lights.

Ristau has worked with Greer over the past decade, making neon and xenon tubes. His lamps combine the contemporary light and glasswork with his found objects.

The resulting pieces are simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic.

This will be Greer’s first show in Marfa.

Ristau’s and Greer’s work will be exhibited on the floor, ceiling and walls of The Do Right Hall.

The exhibit opens from 6-10pm Friday, from 4-10pm Saturday, and 4-9pm Sunday, and is best seen after dark.