Neon Hypocrisy

Neon Hypocrisy places small illuminated declarations to be discovered in backstage sites –  in a dark alley; in the curtains, ropes and working apparatus of a theatre; in a bracelet which becomes a handcuff. As visitors move through a space, messages emerge and disappear, making a change of position necessary to read them.

The backstage locations become a metaphor for the construction of public identity: a place where appearances are rehearsed and the mechanisms supporting them are usually concealed. Neon lends the seductive confidence of advertising to phrases about doubt, rebellion and virtue. Their luminous certainty sits uneasily with their contradictory meanings, questioning the distance between professed beliefs and lived behaviour.

Within this setting, theatrical and morality performance meets. The work explores how declarations of principle can become masks, offering recognition and belonging while shielding us from scrutiny. By revealing the apparatus behind the words, Neon Hypocrisy invites us to consider what sustains our public convictions—and whether we examine ourselves as closely as we judge others.