Marion Smith, Sculptor

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Light Meter

Materials: Oak, plywood, photo etching on brass, papier-mâché, Matsuo Kozo, skiver, plaster, glass, gesso, acrylic paint, graphite

Created: 2014

H: 60cm W: 80cm D: 15cm

Categories: Exhibition Works

Work for sale: Contact the artist

Construction box with elements in photo etched brass, one shows a bear from an astrological chart, on the other there is a map describing trade winds, there are 4 small panels made into a grid, some are cross hatched. Just below the centre there is a box made of wood which has a brass plate with a semi circle cut out of it, and a ball made of plaster attached to a knob right in the centre. In the bottom right there is a little case in 2 parts which is covered in black skiver and lined with red paper. It corresponds to the size of the plaster ball.
Detail of top of oak box, clearly shows letters B and X
Detail of wooden box with photo etched brass lid. Shows the continents of America and Africa with (from top to bottom) the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the Ethiopian Ocean, the lettering is against a background of dotted lines describing winds.
Detail of oak box with photo etching of Ursa Major. Image of a bear with stars and lines over it.
Open case made from 2 hemispheres. The case is lined with paper and the outside is covered in skiver (thin black leather). It is hinged with a brass hinge. It sits on the base of a construction box made from Oak.

The box construction Light Meter features a plaster sphere and the homemade device used to create it by sledging liquid plaster over a rough papier-mâché ball. It also features oak boxes with sliding lids in photo etched brass; a long photo etching with Edmond Halley’s map of trade winds (1686) and Ursa Major from Alexander Jamieson’s Celestial Atlas (1822). There are four gessoed panels, one from each season of the year showing the variation in daylight hours. Bottom right there is a hinged open case for a globe lined in red Matsuo Kozo paper. Studying pocket globes in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland was a major source of inspiration for the work.

Read more about the backstory of this work in my blog Meridians and Makers.

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