Are you still an artist if you’re not making art?

Anthony McCall saw one of his installations fail in front of a crowd, in a museum abroad. A while later, he stopped making art for about 20 years. From the end of the 70s to the turn of the century, McCall worked as a graphic designer. His art “tools” and materials, his art and his career, are unique, and draw an arc from the bohemia of NY in the 70s to the enhanced, interactive technologies of today.

His installations deviated our attention from the projected image of cinema to the projector and its silky cone of light, creating a uniquely technological and immersive experience. Line Describing a Cone, created in 1973, was so arresting that Crissie Iles included it in Into the Light, her seminal exhibition about the projected image in American art at the Whitney Museum (2001).

By then, McCall had fallen in love again with his sculptural cinema, thanks to the invention of the fog machine, which produced a misty substance, recreating the dust and cigarette smoke that turned his projected cones into solid light back in the 70s.

Solid Light is the name of his exhibition at Tate Modern, open until the 29th of June 2025. Whether you’re in this neck of the woods or not, you can listen to the full Exhibitionistas episode about it here or here, or in any podcasting platform.

Meanwhile, check the trailer below for a taste.

Anthony McCall, Line Describing a Cone (1973)

© Anthony McCall,Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 2001.

Photo by Hank Graber.