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Female Behaviour: Artist Kate Hush puts naughty, wicked women in neon lights

"Triboluminescence is the creation of light through the breaking of bonds. There’s pulling, ripping, scratching, crushing, abrasion – and finally, radiance," explains Kate Hush, describing her neon light artworks for her naughty series Female Behaviour.

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Neon light artwork featuring abstract silhouettes of figures in blue, pink, purple and yellow neon tubing against a dark background, framed by a pink neon border

"When a diamond is cut it fluoresces blue or red, not unlike how a person could be described. He is feeling blue, or she is red with anger. In people, in objects, solid states are disrupted. These rips are the the road to a blinding denouement." This friction is what Kate Hush captures in intricately thin silhouettes – bodies and scenery made of light.

She adds: "The men have suffered, and will suffer. The women are conniving and manipulative, naturally. Their tears are phoney and their heels are high. I am bringing to light, literally, their wicked ways. They are fiery, guileful, calculating, crazy... or is it just that their brightness is harder to shield?

"Others are rotten, are double crossers, and they are somehow forgotten. But when a woman produces sharpness it’s as if she yields a deep eternal cut. So why not capture that wound in light? I illustrate the moment when that sap realises he’s followed her down the wrong road, right before the crash. If you’re going to call most women crazy bitches anyway, so why not light them that way?"

Kate Hush appeared in New York City via train in 2010, has been interested in wicked women since birth, and has been working with neon lighting since 2013. She is a quiet woman, and needs you to know nothing more. See her neon sculptures, Female Behaviour, at Brooklyn's Cooler Gallery until the end of January 2017.

Via Creative Boom submission | All images courtesy of the Cooler Gallery

Neon artwork depicting a woman's outline in bright blue and pink neon tubes, shown in a dynamic pose against a dark background within a pink neon rectangular frame
Neon light artwork featuring two stylised female figures in cyan and gold against a magenta rectangular frame, by Kate Hush
Two neon artworks by Kate Hush depicting stylised female figures in dynamic poses, outlined in glowing blue, pink, yellow and green tubing against a dark background
Neon light artwork featuring colourful silhouettes of intertwined figures in yellow, red, blue and green within a golden rectangular frame, displayed next to a white cooler
Gallery space with a wooden door and white wall on the left, black wall on right displaying three vibrant neon artworks in multi-coloured light depicting stylised female figures
Neon light artwork depicting a woman's face in red and yellow neon lines on a blue outlined vintage television set against a black background
Neon light artwork by Kate Hush depicting a stylised female figure in blue and orange neon lines, displayed in a gallery space with other illuminated artworks visible in the background
Neon light sculpture by Kate Hush depicting a female figure with outstretched arms, glowing in blue, pink, yellow and red against a purple background
Neon light artwork featuring a stylised female figure in blue and pink outlined in red, with yellow ornamental vessels on either side and turquoise shapes at the base, against a brick wall
Neon light artwork by Kate Hush depicting a stylised female figure with flowing hair in white, blue and pink neon tubing against wooden panelling
Neon light artwork by Kate Hush depicting a stylised female figure in white and blue neon tubes against wooden panelling, mounted on a gallery wall with spotlights
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