Mark Handforth

When Mark Handforth turns the lights down, he turns them down all the way to the ground. Lamppost , from 2003, is a massive industrial streetlight, originally 45 feet tall, that is folded in two places so that its five-armed light cluster rests on the ground; it's one of a series that recalls the work of Martin Kipperberger, who bent a few lampposts in his day. Handforth's practice, illuminated in this monograph, employs everyday urban objects like benches, street signs, and Vespas (in addition to street lights) and recontextualizes them so that we see them anew. Light infuses almost all his works, which also include fluorescent-tube stars and circles in bright colors, adding a little South Beach flava to a Flavin quote.