And so to the Chisenhale Gallery for a thoughtful—and thought provoking—session with their current artist Nicholas Mangan who was in-conversation with curators Max Andrews and Marina Canepa Luna about Ancient Lights, his two-channel video installation powered entirely by a set of solar panels specially installed on Chisenhale’s roof.
Issues of energy, economy, ritual and prophecy all combine and coalesce in Mangan’s rich explorations of the literal and metaphorical power of the sun, and everyone agreed that his precariously but perpetually spinning image of the ten peso coin that forms the central motif of his first solar-powered film strikes a serendipitously topical note in our current climate of fiscal upheaval.
And talking of climate, it was also timely that the show opened just before the hottest July day on record, and that the notoriously unpredictable English summer has so far provided the necessary energy to keep the show rolling on its screens. However in the world of meteorology and economics there are no certainties, and perhaps for this reason Chisenhale director Polly Staple was adamant that, despite its environmental—and no doubt short term financial—benefits, the gallery had no permanent plans to go off-grid, remarking that “our shows might have to be rather smaller if we did.”
