Spectrum of Brick Lane 02, 2007
Lightboxes, steel shelving, acrylic sheet, fluorescent lights, cable, plug boards
520 x 90 x 31 cm
Tate

David Batchelor is fascinated by the way our experience of colour has been transformed by the modern city. 'Most of the colour we see now is chemical or electrical; it is plastic or metallic; it is flat, shiny, iridescent, glowing or flashing (or it is broken, switched off and as if it was never there).' He makes structures, often using second-hand components, which reflect the fugitive and insubstantial qualities of colour which intrigue him.

In this work, originally commissioned by Tate Britain, he explores the 'vivid and impure colours associated with cosmetics and commerce.' From a distance it resembles a multi-coloured zip of light. A closer look reveals its nuts and bolts, wiring and other means of construction. The two different views reflect the experiences of the city, where surface appearances often differ wildly from the structures that support them.

I Love King's Cross and King's Cross Loves Me, 08, 2002-07
4 found dollies, acrylic sheet, enamel paint (2002); 2 found dollies, acrylic sheet, enamel paint (2007)
14 x 63 x 49 cm, 13 x 66 x 50 cm, 14 x 78 x 50 cm, 16 x 80 x 61 cm, 17 x 83 x 46 cm, 6 x 72 x 53 cm
Tate

Batchelor's main interest is in colour as we experience it in the city, artificial and industrial. Since the early 1990s, his free-standing works have combined the monochrome with the readymade. Much of this work is shaped by accident. His wheel-mounted monochromes, using dollies found around Kings Cross where he lives, came from his search for a ramshackle, ready-made support for intense colour. He had an old flat-bed trolley in his studio which he used to dry a panel of painted acrylic on 'and it sort of fitted.' What attracted him to their form 'was partly their absurdity.'