LUMINOUS OBJECTS
THE OCTAVE OF VISIBLE LIGHT: A MEDITATION NIGHTCLUB
“Chavez aims to lay bare the form of inspiration by diving for prolonged periods into the depths of consciousness — the very depths from which creativity arises.” — Image Journal
Luminous Objects (2013 - Present)
Ongoing Performance Work
Commissioned by The Armory Show, 2013
In Luminous Objects, Lia Chavez transforms herself into a living observatory—an embodied lens attuned not to distant galaxies, but to the radiant interior architecture of consciousness. Part durational meditation, part live transmission, the performance offers a rare opportunity to witness an artist navigating the boundary between form and formlessness, light and language, the infinite and the finite.
Chavez begins in deep meditative concentration, using contemplative techniques developed through years of practice and scientific collaboration. By sustaining prolonged inner stillness, she induces high-amplitude gamma wave activity—neural frequencies associated with peak states of awareness, creativity, and visionary insight. As this activity intensifies, her mind’s eye floods with what she describes as “storms of consciousness”: cataclysmic bursts of light, embryonic stars, fibrous electricity, and ephemeral clouds of photons.
Functioning as both observer and conduit, Chavez acts—at moments—as a kind of modern oracle, channeling these internal visions into spontaneous, calligraphic inscriptions. Composed in real time during trance-like concentration, her writings serve as visual artifacts of a perceptual field typically hidden from view. The audience is invited to witness these unfolding gestures as the artist maps the topography of her inner optical landscape—an ever-shifting terrain of sensation and revelation.
“Trance-like Chavez teases us with thoughts that arise from the depths of her consciousness.” – Hamptons Art Hub
“It was riveting to watch her.” – Cottages and Gardens
The work takes its name from the language of astrophysics: “luminous objects” are celestial bodies, such as stars, that emit their own light. Just as the Hubble Space Telescope reveals distant galaxies through extended exposure, Chavez uses meditation as a form of inner duration—lengthening the aperture of attention until unseen phenomena emerge with startling clarity. Her body becomes a kind of internalized camera, tuned to the radiant signal of the self.
“Must-see.” – PAPER Magazine
By drawing upon the idiom of photography while dispensing with mechanical apparatus, Chavez reimagines vision as an act of generative inner seeing. Luminous Objects becomes not merely a performance, but a ritual of transmission—where perception itself is both medium and message, and consciousness emerges as a luminous object: radiant, self-generating, and endlessly unfolding.
Originally commissioned by The Armory Show, Luminous Objects has been presented in major exhibitions at The Armory Show, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, and Grace Farms.
Central to Luminous Objects is Chavez’s engagement with Henri Bergson’s concept of la durée—the continuous, indivisible flow of consciousness that resists the segmenting effects of perception and language. In this performance, she stages a dynamic interplay between the boundless stream of superconscious experience and the structuring impulse of thought. It is within this tension—between the fluid and the fixed—that Chavez situates her work.
“Sensual and optical.”
– Hamptons Art Hub
Details
Luminous Objects, 2013-present
Ongoing Performance Work
Commissioned by The Armory Show
Credits
2013
Artistic Director and Performer: Lia Chavez
Curator: Blair Clarke
Presenter: The Armory Show
Patron: Chiswell Langhorne
2014
Artistic Director and Performer: Lia Chavez
Producer: Two Rams
Curator: Tali Wertheimer
Presenter: SPRING/BREAK Art Show
2015
Artistic Director and Performer: Lia Chavez
Curator: Kenyon Adams
Presenter: Grace Farms Foundation
Selected Press
