Panta Rei (Everything Flows), 2008
Panta Rei is a mechanical candle making an installation. A simple configuration of familiar elements: string, eyelets, buckets, heaters, wax and a motorised CAM arm. As the arm turns on the ceiling, one by one lengths of wick are lowered into buckets of molten blue wax, building up a thin layer each time. A candle slowly emerges. The work is part performance, part production process; a web of strings in a constantly evolving cycle of ceiling geometry, methodically raising and lowering wicks in a wave-like motion. When a complete harvest is formed, a fresh batch of wicks can begin. In Studio Glithero’s work, the machines share the stage with the products they produce. As their inventors, Studio Glithero act as choreographers of timing and movement. The final products are literally out of their hands.
