Body of Water, Body of Light by Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett (2026). Supported by the Art Gallery of Alberta and Canada Council for the Arts. Edmonton, Canada.
Body of Water, Body of Light is a glittering, kinetic installation exploring the interspace between light and death. Built from everyday optical materials and animated by simple mechanisms, the piece takes the form of a deconstructed human figure, floating in a dark room.
Shards of reflected light twinkle off the walls, ceiling, and floor, gently spinning like a magic lantern. An internal light pulses slowly inside the piece, rising and falling in a glacial heartbeat.
From a distance, the figure appears ethereal, elemental, and watery – an angel and alien in equal measure. As you approach, the sculpture deconstructs itself, revealing chandelier crystals, old necklaces, bits of glass, and everyday eyeglass lenses – found materials transformed into precious artifacts through a trick of the light.
Body of Water, Body of Light draws from the artists’ personal cosmology, halfway between the sacred and the mundane, proposing a post-religious meditation on the luminosity of being.
You can visit Body of Water, Body of Light at The Light Fantastic, an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Alberta, until February 2027.
Thank you the Art Gallery of Alberta, especially Catherine, Sara, Jesse, Clint, Simone, Callum, and the Prep Team. Thanks to Matthew Kennedy for supporting CNC work, Elaine Weryshko and the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry for supporting our studio at Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and to the Canadian Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre (especially Gordon and James) for sharing recycled lenses. The creation of this artwork was generously supported by Canada Council for the Arts and the Art Gallery of Alberta.
A word of gratitude to my Grandparents for donating their crystal chandeliers (posthumously), my Godmother for the pendant, and Spencer’s Mom for sharing her rainbows at a wedding long past. This piece is for our beloved dead.
