Gila Abutalebi’s art comes alive with ETC Source Four Mini

The artist Gila Abutalebi, who lives and works in Cologne, Germany, calls her art Transparente Lyrik . To let the colours of her multidimensional art shine, the German-Iranian was long on the search for the perfect lighting. She found what she was looking for in ETC's Source Four Mini .

To create her works of art, Gila Abutalebi initially began with the visualisation of texts. She reduced and abstracted these until she reached letters. In her works from the series "In Love with K - K Visuals" and "M in Process - M Visuals: Menschen auf Zeit", Abutalebi writes an innumerable number of individual letters on plastic sheets, forming surfaces, patterns and forms out of these. For an art piece, she will position several of these sheets in a deep frame. Thus, a work of art with an inconceivable spatial depth is created. Especially important for a comprehensive experience of her art, is the right lighting. "I simply want perfect lighting. The colours and the shadow play of the different layers gather on the rear panel. I only found the radiance I needed for this with ETC," says Abutalebi.

In search of the perfect lighting, Abutalebi was supported by Andreas Grüter, head of the Cologne Opera's lighting department. "When he came into my showroom and saw the pictures for the first time, ETC lighting was his first thought," recalls Abutalebi.

Grüter and Abutalebi tested various fixtures but - with its definition on the projections - only the ETC Source Four Mini convinced. Andreas Grüter: "You can't achieve the clarity on the rear panel with a simple fixture. Here, the fixture virtually becomes a projector. Thus, you have to work with a lens that can clearly define the light. With the Source Four Mini I can align the lighting in such a way that the works of art virtually become light boxes, which seem to glow from the inside."

According to Grüter, the high colour rendering of the Source Four Mini was an important feature. "We work with 3200K incandescent. In addition to the red tones, the blue tones are also wonderfully displayed; even the nuances can be very well perceived. If the light becomes too cold, it becomes unpleasant for the person appreciating the artwork."

For Abutalebi, it would be ideal if the customers would purchase a Source Four Mini fixture along with her works of art. "These fixtures make my art glow perfectly," says Abutalebi. Grüter adds: "We couldn't create the seemingly infinite depth of the artwork with any other fixture."

Photo credit: Gila Abutalebi