The Stamelos Gallery Center had been relocated in recent years to a newly renovated space on the first floor of the Mardigian Library. In designing a new facility with greater exhibition and technology flexibility there was an abundance of electrical outlets installed not only low to the ground but also up in the vaulted ceiling portion of the gallery. Though painted black to anonymize the space, the raised ceiling area contains important gallery infrastructure, including the outlets, that Nadja and I had a strong desire to activate and draw attention to with site specific work. 

The concept to place nightlights in the 8 upper outlets was an homage to my earlier piece Dream House: Clothes Pit which contained a nightlight in the hidden room that is only viewable from outside the gallery through the gallery window. The nightlight would stay lit, illuminating the piece from within and remain viewable from the street even when the gallery was closed with the lights off.

The choice of Edison-style LED bulbs was a nod to the evolution of electrical technology over the past 140+ years and to ensure that the nightlights didn’t waste very much energy while being left on for the 4 months of the exhibition. It was important to me symbolically that the aesthetics invoked Thomas Edison who was one of Henry Ford’s greatest inspirations and closest friends. Not only is Ford an icon of the city of Dearborn, the UM-Dearborn campus was founded in 1959 with a gift of land and money from the Ford Motor Company. The title Ghost Light is not only connected to the phenomenon of keeping one light always burning in theatres, but also to the looming spectre of Henry Ford and his associates of American capitalism in Dearborn. In this vein, when I recreated the piece Tire with Tire Suspenders, I chose a Firestone tire specifically to complete the trifecta of Ford, Edison, and Harvey Firestone who were all good friends and would vacation together.

— Andy T