Photographic Alphabet: V is for Vicki DaSilva
By Micheál Masterson
Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti and light painting pioneer. She has been making single frame time exposure photographs at night since 1980. DaSilva is the first artist to make deliberate text light graffiti photographs and is credited with creating the term “light graffiti”. She continued these light graffiti photographs throughout the 1980s and eventually started using four foot fluorescent bulbs hooked up to pulley systems to create sheets of light. She was influenced during her time as an intern with video and performance artist Joan Jonas, as well as Richard Serra with whom she worked as a part time personal assistant with in the 80s. Those experiences, along with the birth of hip-hop and the fusion of graffiti with fine art, was extremely influential in her art.
Using a camera that allows a ‘bulb’ setting for an extended time while on a tripod, Vicki DaSilva walks with an eight-foot fluorescent lamp directed at the camera and the camera documents the movement of the light. Light painting can imitate characteristics of traditional painting, superimposition and transparency can easily be achieved by moving, adding or removing lights or subjects during or between exposures. DaSilva came to the attention of a wider audience when she began posting documentation of her work on Youtube in 2009. The video documentation of DaSilva's image-making process has become an increasingly important part of her work as it not only allows viewers to see how the photographs are made but also allows for the performative aspect of her work to be included in the final image.
To see more of Vicki's work click here