The Perpetual Light Machine is a telling examples of Paul Francis Irving’s willingness to fuse his sculptural work with a sonic experimentalism as part of his creative practice, forging a trademarked anarchic, tribal, post-industrial art.
Paul’s background in mechanics, love of glitchy electronics, use of ‘found’ materials, and punk aesthetic leave him well placed as one of a number of leading artists commissioned to create work for GLITCH: A Playground of the Apocalypse, presented by Tortuga Studios for EDGE Sydenham 2022. As a textural percussionist, he fuses modified musical instruments with his own percussive creations – steel bells made from modified LPG bottles, for example – and creates authentic and unique sound fields as part of larger installation works. The instruments the artist creates are a juxtaposition of beauty and trash via the transformation and metamorphosis of industrial and domestic waste. Beyond that, his large-scale installations are immersive worlds that cosset the viewer, cradling their expectations before dashing them to the ground.
For GLITCH, the artist is working on creating a vast soundscape to echo and boom from The Perpetual Light Machine, though from what is yet unclear. Listen to his experimental progress below: