Adam Frelin

Lighthouse, Beheaded

paint, foam, wood, cardboard, steel, plastic, electrical components / single-channel video
14' x 4' x 4' and 4' x 2.5' x 2.5' / 4-minutes
2008

As part of a commissioned artwork for an outdoor sculpture exhibition at the Evergreen Museum in Baltimore, I created a "functioning" lighthouse for their grounds. Based on a decommissioned lighthouse I had visited on Cape Cod, as well as from historical accounts of people retaining sentience after being guillotined, my lighthouse acted as a stand-in for a decapitated person. Like a head still conscious after being beheaded, the light inside continued to rotate and glow. In parallel, plotless stories, two solitary men transport this truncated beacon: one dragging the "light head" over sand dunes, while the other drives it through the snow in the sidecar of his motorcycle.