Keith Sonnier (1941-2020)

BA-0-BA, Krefeld II

black lacquer on glass, neon and argon tubes in red (1), blue (2) and yellow (2), overall ca. 198x438x26 cm
Executed in 1979.

Provenance:
-Collection Helga & Walther Lauffs, Bad Honnef, Germany.
-Corporate collection, the Netherlands.

Exhibited:
Krefeld, Germany, Museum Haus Lange Krefeld, 'Keith Sonnier. Argon- und Neon-Arbeiten', 8 April - 20 Mai 1979 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue on the title page).

On the occasion of his exhibition in Krefeld in 1979, Keith Sonnier gave some insights on the meaning of his BA-O-BA series: "BA-O-BA is a Haitian French slang word which can mean color or light bath. It is used to describe the effects of light on the skin or body - as to feel the effect of moonlight which suggests the physical and physiological pull of natural or artificial light. The Ba-O-BA works were begun in 1969 and were designed as works that were visual and physical in appearance. As one moves past or around the works they alter your perception and tint your persona.
This body of work was the bases for most of my early video tapes and films, because the pieces could exist in so many variations of form and colour combinations. I use video to record the changes. The pieces became movable sets very much in the theatrical sense. The effects the work had on the audience, became as important as the actual work, suggesting an interaction that was not only based on visual means. Sound and physical movements could be used as an element to assist in the perception of the work. I record the BA-O-BA work on tape, electronic colors and computerized forms of pictogram images were organized around a series of materials. The redrawings of these BA-O-BA pictograms helped to expand the variations of the forms as well as to freeze the images, to stop them in time or even to translate them into some permanent sculptural state." (extract from the exhibition catalogue 'Keith Sonnier. Argon- und Neon-Arbeiten', 1979).