When I first began working with various patinas and corrosives, I housed these chemicals in commonplace jars, amassing what would develop into a complex palette of chemical agents that could impart certain colors on certain surfaces. Over time, the water in those jars would deplete, either through my use of the solutions or through the evaporation; and the chemicals would leave behind a residual stain along the inside surface of those jars. I was immediately struck by the stratification of the various chemicals, and I sought to fix those patterns by applying the inner walls of the jars with a thick coating of acrylic gel medium. As intriguing as an individual jar was, each became even more so when I dropped a lightbulb inside the jar. Since 1998, I have been slowly amassing an large collection of these illuminated jars, and they have become a common backdrop for a number of my performances. I was always amazed at the variety of readings that people gave to them, as almost many people have assumed the objects to be generating the light through some internal chemical reaction and not a common 4 watt lightbulb. If only my knowledge of chemistry were that great!

In 2006, The Exploratorium commissioned me to suspend these jars from the ceiling of their cavernous space. At that time, I named the whole collection of objects A Constellation.

Currently, I have constructed over 120 jars.