Mercury is an installation using 35 separate strands to create a screen of light, stone and leather. Each strand which comprises Mercury uses three different elements: LED tubes, oversized stone beads, and massive suede tassels.  The LED tubes use Brittain’s signature hardware, all custom designed, fabricated, and finished.  The stone beads are honed from 4 different semi-precious stones: rainbow obsidian, snowflake obsidian, zebra jasper and black agate.  Each suede tassel is hand made by Brittain from many yards of suede, detailed with chrome oil tanned leather, forming elegant and opulent statements.  These three elements are strung together in a manner resembling making a necklace, using the large tassel to ground the strand both literally and figuratively as it pours onto the floor. 

 While Mercury has at it’s core these single strands, it is the composition of them which showcases its internal characteristics and contrasts.  The form the installation takes highlights the massive opacity of the leather forms through repetition and scale. In contrast to this grounding element, the upper elements of beads and light give the piece a light airiness that seems to float above the heaviness of the tassels.  In its entirety as an installation, the piece creates a screen of light.

The colorway of the piece explores variations within a narrow field and also takes into account the metaphysical properties of the stones.  Ultimately, this is a piece which is about the subtlety and exploration of darkness and light, of opacity and lightness, and of opulence, and harmony.