Sam Lewitt

More Heat Than Light

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, More Heat Than Light, view on A Weak Local Lexicon (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Courtesy Sam Lewitt und Pilar Corrias Gallery, London. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, More Heat Than Light, view on A Weak Local Lexicon (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Courtesy Sam Lewitt und Pilar Corrias Gallery, London. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on A Weak Local (Vacuum Trace Revision 1E), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, More Heat Than Light, view on The Cold Parts, 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, installation view, More Heat Than Light, view on Weak Local Lineament (MHTL), 2016, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, More Heat Than Light, heatcamera image, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, More Heat Than Light, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Photo: Philipp Hänger/Kunsthalle Basel

Sam Lewitt, poster for the exhibition, More Heat Than Light, Kunsthalle Basel, 2016. Design: Hammer

Exhibition text (PDF)

Schonungsloser Störenfried in der Kunsthalle, Tageswoche (03/2016)
Ein Besuch in der Matrix des Kunstsystems, Badische Zeitung (04/2016)
Sam Lewitt “More Heat Than Light”, Mousse Magazine (05/2016)

Minimal in form and conceptually dense, More Heat Than Light by the US-American artist Sam Lewitt (b. 1981) features numerous large-scale heating circuits inserted into Kunsthalle Basel’s overhead lighting grid. A sly intervention into the institutional infrastructure, these circuits parasitically draw from and convert the grid’s luminous output into thermal energy. Accompanied by texts, digital sensors, and a thermal camera that registers the temperature of the heaters and of visitors’ bodies, the installation stages a confrontation between flexibility and enclosure, phenomenological experience and quantifiable data. This is Lewitt’s first institutional solo show in Europe, and it is co-organized with the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco.