Roger Borg
December 21st, 2009
Roger Borg received his Masters of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers in 2002, and subsequently attended the world-renowned Pilchuck Glass School in the summer of that year. By 2003 Roger had formed the company 419 NEON, which produces custom neon signs and lighting for the trade. He continues his art and design work through his studio, producing original artwork as well as one-off and limited edition neon lamps. Roger’s artwork was exhibited at the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles in 2004, and his works reside in a number of public and private collections. Additionally, Roger continues his involvement with Pilchuck Glass School as a contributing artist to the annual fund-raising auction held each October.
Roger Borg presents his most recent design work, which continues his innovative approach toward the medium of neon. Acknowledging and accepting the inherent characteristics of this mid-nineteenth century light source, its flatness and two-dimensionality, its seductive and luminous colors, and its malleability of shape, Roger incorporates these age-old traits for new ends. Implicit in this narrative is the challenging of a core aspect of traditional lamps. Whereas their illumination is reliant upon an interior light source concealed and diffused through an exterior, Roger’s lamps instead generate light directly from their entire exterior surface. The light is produced and emanates from this external shell; it does not hide behind, rather it stands out in front. The need for an interior bulb is rendered moot. The bulb is now the shape, the shape is now the light.
Six Column Merge
This piece was dedicated more to form than to color. As such, a very pure white light was used to unify the shape as a whole. My interest was upon the topography of its exterior, whose shell undulated and receded along six distinct columns. Each column grew and receded as it progressed vertically, while the adjacent columns reacted conversely in relation.
Twelve Piece (Open Series)
A recent piece melding some of the aspects of the radial stacks’ construction with the porous nature of the open series, this lamp inlays a small triangle inside a larger counterpart. These outer triangles are then lashed together to form a sort of faceted conical shape, which hangs from above, creating a light approaching midday daylight.
Radial Stack (Untitled)
The first of a new series, this lamp consists of six tubes arranged into a cylinder, whose lower segment expands outward into a sort of squished sphere, an ovoid of sorts. The axis point at which the lines (or in this case the neon tubes) would have intersected has been rendered in yellow, to note this trait.
Split Stack
This lamp focuses on the conflicting nature of the three-dimensional cylinder and its transition into a two-dimensional plane. The further its arms extend outward from the center, the more accentuated this dichotomy becomes. As to the name, it is a twofold reference to its split personality vacillating between flatness and three-dimensionality, as well as relating to its form, which traces the separation of a single line into two, and then the subsequent cleaving of those branches.
Slant Lamp
The largest of the open series, the asymmetrical character of this lamp foments a certain unease and tension. Viewed from various angles, from some it appears ready to topple; while from others its stability is not in question. It is in a perpetual state of both balance and imbalance, and although it is at odds with itself, it remains merrily content to reconcile this dichotomy.
More Info: www.rogerborg.com