Light as surface and intensity

Light Intensity and Surface is the title of this PhD art exhibition where I explore through paintings, the world of my own encounter with the radiant light of the Linear Accelerator used in treatment of women with breast cancer. This engagement with the world of light technology encompasses oncologists, physicists and women who extended their personal experience to inform my artwork and contribute to the theoretical connections made in this thesis. The contribution of this thesis lies in how the lecture The Origin of the Work of Art by philosopher Martin Heidegger can be applied to a reading of great artworks that are separated in time, space and culture but connected in their subject: Light. It was his philosophy that helped shape the connections between where art originates and what springs from the artwork itself. The concept of light in the title of this thesis refers to Heidegger’s notion of the clearing seins Lichtung-the lighting centre- the medium that holds one being to another from where the idea for an artwork springs in the artist. Surface relates to the attunement of artists throughout history to the new particularly in the science of controlling light which influences the way artists achieve the material appearance of their artwork. Intensity refers to the level of openness to the mystery of light in both physicists and artists to create and control some thing that stabilises a community and remains a source of wonder. This thesis demonstrated how artists have responded to the new light technology with a way of seeing that created a depth dimension that bridges cultural worlds to unearth the breath of something often most effectively communicated by being silen