Dezeen Magazine

Tate Cerith Wyn Evans installation

Neon scribbles by Cerith Wyn Evans hang in London's Tate Britain

Almost two kilometres of neon lighting shaped into sharp lines and sweeping forms create this installation by Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans, which is suspended in the Tate Britain's Duveen Galleries.

Forms in Space... by Light (in Time) is a major new installation by Wyn Evans, created for the Tate Britain Commission and supported by auction house Sotheby's. The lighting is structured in three parts, emerging from a single neon ring before developing into a collection of three discs.

The forms appear as scribbles and rough drawings, similar to "light writing" with a torch captured by a DSLR camera on a slow-shutter-speed setting.

Tate Cerith Wyn Evans installation

Jutting out from these tangled marks are sharper and more purposeful shapes and symbols, framing the perimeter of the forms. These maze-like lines are intended to mimic physical and kinetic gestures, like footsteps and folding material.

Wyn Evans describes these three forms as "occulist witnesses", referenced by artist Marcel Duchamp in his sculpture The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) (1915-23), which was donated to the Tate's collection in 1975.

When walking through the long Duveen Galleries, the suspended sculptures appear to move with the viewer as the patterns created shift with their changing perspective.

Between the bursts of curves, loops and jagged straight lines, the suggestion of kinetics in the light sculptures reflects the artist's interest in choreology – the practice of translating movement into notational form. Wyn Evans also drew influence from the codified and precise movements of Japanese Noh theatre for Forms in Space.

Tate Cerith Wyn Evans installation

"Cerith has made a unique contribution to British and international art for over two decades," said Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson. "This compelling commission demonstrates his ability to create structures out of a light on a challenging scale and reveals the rich world of poetic ideas that informs his projects."

Beginning his career as an experimental filmmaker, Wyn Evans has incorporated diverse media into his practice, including installation, sculpture, photography, film and text.

Other site-specific light installations by the artist include E=V=E=N=T (2015), a sculpture commissioned for Malmo Live, a new cultural hub and concert hall, and "Arr/Dep" (imaginary landscape for the birds) (2006), at airline Lufthansa's Frankfurt headquarters.

"Every year the ambition, inventiveness and sheer scale of the Tate Britain Commission captivates visitors to the magnificent Duveen Galleries," said Alex Branczik, Sotheby's head of contemporary art.

"This year, we are proud to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of our support for the commission, which is as unmissable as ever with Cerith Wyn Evans' architectural light installation."

Previous commissions for the 300 metres-long neoclassical Duveen Galleries include Phyllida Barlow's dock (2014), Fiona Banner's Harrier and Jaguar (2010) and Martin Creed's Work No.850 (2008).

The galleries are situated at the front of the main building in London's Pimlico, designed by American architect John Russell Pope and completed in 1937, then renovated by London firm Caruso St John in 2013.

Images are by Tate Photography.