Suspended neon “True Gravity” installation transforms The Rockwell Museum’s entryway

CORNING, NY.- Luminous forms welcome visitors to The Rockwell Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate, in “True Gravity,” the latest installation in its Antigravity series. Created by neon artists and founders of She Bends Studios, the installation was designed by Kelsey Issel in collaborative mentorship with Meryl Pataky. The work will be on view through March 2027 in the first-floor entryway. Suspended within the Museum’s historic rotunda, the installation explores glass, light and the subtle forces that shape form.

She Bends is a neon organization and teaching studio dedicated to the practice and study of neon craft and contemporary art, highlighting the contributions of women and gender-expansive artists who bend their own glass and push the boundaries of the material.

“‘True Gravity’ is a study in balance: breath, heat and gravity conspiring with two artists to make something suspended between intent and inevitability — a record of trust in each other, in the material and in the invisible forces, human and natural, that hold us here,” said Issel.

Drawing from the visual and structural language of open weave textiles, “True Gravity” examines tensions between rigidity and flexibility and individuality and interdependence. Pataky and Issel’s neon creations invite visitors to reconsider the expressive potential of glass and light. Weighing more than 100 pounds, the soft glass tubes are filled with krypton, creating an ethereal milky white color suspended by monofilament.

The title of the work of art references Michael Murphy’s concept of “true gravity,” a condition in which the body yields to what the material and the environment already intend. The artists’ shared practice draws on feminist teaching methods, valuing attunement over control and exchange over hierarchy.