Toxic lady on the hunt for a dark home

Photo credit Graham Reading

A new sculpture by artist Clare Ralph Leonty is a statement on modern life.

Toxic lady is the torso of a woman sculpted in radioactive uranium glass, embedded in clear glass, and is designed to be seen in the dark under ultra-violet light. In a specially designed frame, with noise sensitive lights, an eerie glow picks out the light-sensitive pieces of bright green uranium glass deep within her body.

“I wanted to make a statement about our toxic lives,” said the artist. “We eat meat from animals over-dosed with drugs; we breathe in the toxic fumes from the glyphosates they spray on the weeds ; we’re apparently full of micro beads of plastic that make their way into the food chain and the sun is now giving us cancer because our protective ozone layer is being destroyed by global warming. Corals and underwater plants emit this phosphorescent light when they are in danger.

“This is my statement on modern living, and the way we will end up if we carry on in our self-destructive ways.”

Toxic Lady is a one off piece that Clare made with Timothy Harris of the award winning Isle of Wight Studio Glass at his studio in Arreton. It can be seen there, although only by appointment as the sculpture has to be seen in the dark, lit by the ‘black lights’. The price of the piece is available on application.

“It would be ideal if this piece could be displayed in a nightclub or in a private screening room, somewhere that is dark but accessible,” explained Clare. “Or a collector might have her in a darkened corner of their gallery. She needs her own space – she is toxic after all.”