MAY 1, 2023. KATE MOTHES

All images © Barry Underwood

A variety of landscapes set the scene for Barry Underwood’s vivid light sculptures, illuminating sites of human interference and destruction.

A variety of landscapes set the scene for Barry Underwood’s vivid sculptures (previously), illuminating sites of human interference and destruction. Utilizing LED lights and reflective materials, he challenges perceptions of flatness and depth and invites us to consider the significance of our surroundings. “Our understanding of landscape is a construct based upon what we want from the land and what we have experienced,” he says.

Underwood’s latest series Linear Construction—to which many of these images belong—“focuses on visual illusions that reflect the land conservation paradoxes created by humans’ deep augmentation of the natural world,” he tells Colossal. While some images contain clear signs of intervention, such as a mown field or a stone wall, others require a closer look at a treeless river bank or a cleared meadow.[…]

More: Barry Underwood Illuminates Human Presence in the Landscape in Geometric Light Sculptures — Colossal