A forbidden energy state is the phrase used to describe the relatively slow emission of light from a phosphorescent material after it has absorbed energy – it holds it in a ‘forbidden’ state before re-emitting it. Mount Hermon is a set of three summits in the Anti-Lebanon mountain range that runs between the border of Syria and Lebanon. It is a very holy site, where temples from several different religions and periods are situated. Mount Hermon is mentioned in the Book of Enoch as the place where a group of angels defied God by taking human wives and thus descended to earth and mortality. My sculpture imagines a collection of sculpture fragments from an ancient civilization that depicts this conflict and fall from grace. It references the ebb and flow of civilizations throughout history, the destruction of artworks (particularly public sculpture) in times of political or religious upheavals, the body fragments left behind after a battle and the ‘forbidden energy state’ that a civilian population is held in when their country is at war.

My current art practice consists of sculpture and light installation, supported by drawing, collage and creative writing. Visually, I am inspired by the beauty of ruins, the solemn power of sculpture fragments, and the cryptic force of ancient relics. Through these interests, I often explore the dialectic between antiquity/ancient civilizations and modern science within my work. The relationships that I draw between the spiritual and the scientific, is usually placed within the wider context of Western art tradition, where I locate the instabilities and assumptions of this tradition and highlight them as poetic or aesthetic rather than as objective facts.

Chloe Windsor

www.chloewindsor.co.uk 

Born 1987, Surrey, United Kingdom
Currently Resides Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Education
• BA, University of Dundee