Keith Sonnier (born in 1941 in Mamou/Louisiana) became internationally famous mainly with his sculptures and installations using coloured neon light. His most spectacular work in Europe is the "way of light" at the airport in Munich, which is more than one kilometre long and connects different terminals. Although fluorescent light has been an integral part of his artistic work for more than 30 years, what makes Sonnier's work so special is the variety of material that he uses and their formal and topical complexity. Since the late Sixties, Sonnier has promoted a new perception of sculptural art which directly involves the spectator with the open, procedural character of his work and the use of cheap material such as felt, fibre glass, lead, wire, neon, aluminium and glass, which until then had played no role whatsoever in art.

The "Kiosk II"-sculpture (1987) is also significantly characterised by the use of fluorescent tubes, which bathe the room, the spectator and the sculpture itself in colour and at the same time underline the linear structure of the aluminium frame in the room. "Kiosk II" was one of Sonnier's first free-standing, room-embracing light objects and greatly influenced his public commissions over the next few years.

The textile sculpture "El Globo" (1992) is more than 6 metres long and features a canvas windsock which is kept suspended by two electrical blowers. The sculpture reminds of the artist's early textile work, but combines it with silk-screen prints of graphic work representing globally connected transmission systems, light- and soundwaves and international stock market prices.

On the first floor of the exhibition, the visitor finds installation work containing foam elements, fluorescent colour powder and black light, which was designed in 1970 for the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and now – 30 years later – is exhibited again for the first time at the Kunsthaus Bregenz.

On this floor, the visitor truly becomes part of the installation.
While walking around in the darkened room between the fluorescent foam elements, his colour-, spatial and body perception changes due to the effect of black light combined with fluorescent colour.

With this work, Sonnier wanted to find out how the visitors move through the installation and how they perceive it in the extreme lighting conditions.