The Blue of Distance

2022

26” x 61” x 6”

Neon, transformers, controller

This animated neon sign alternates between two messages: “IMAGINE THE DISTANCE FROM HERE,” and “IMAGINE THE TIME FROM NOW.” The text and the deep blue color of the neon is inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s essay, “The Blue of Distance.” In it, Solnit describes blue as the color “of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not.”

Neon by Amy Enlow. Fabrication assistance provided by Megan Scoma.