Don't Turn Me On

Dan Flavin was the reknowned artist who used mass-produced , off-the-shelf fluorescent lighting fixtures to create his inherently temporal light sculptures. He was making beauty from endlessly available supplies.

These "monuments" only survive as long as the light system is useful - about 2,100 hours. Flavin was quoted as saying he wanted to challenge the permanence of art.
"Bulbs burn out."

So, the joke is that the once anonymously industrial and readily available source materials are becoming hard to find. Manufacturers are disappearing. Sylvania stopped making green bulbs.

Before his death, Flavin had his assistant scour warehouses and came up with 600 spare bulbs that were stored to be used judiciously in the future, to replace bulbs that had burned out. Then he hired custom fabricators to make replicas of the bulbs he needed. The lighting fixtures themselves were then made from vintage templates rescued from the original factory.

So the preservation of Flavin's artistry is now in the hands of artisanal hand crafters that he was rebelling against.

Permanence and temporality. Off-the-shelf and handmade. Original and reproduction.

Flavin's sculptures with the original bulbs and hardware can sell for 3/4 of a million dollars.

So most collectors never actually plug them in, protecting their investments.