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Exhibitionists·In Residence

Why does this artist love neon? 'No matter what I'm saying, they're going to listen'

You can't look away from these bright and shiny GIFs. Tim Singleton is this week's Exhibitionist in Residence.

You can't look away from these bright and shiny GIFs. Tim Singleton is this week's Exhibitionist in Residence

Leah Collins · CBC Arts ·
(Courtesy of the artist)

Bright lights, big typography. That's what the art of Tim Singleton is all about.

The Toronto-based illustrator is this week's Exhibitionist in Residence, and the GIFs he's shared with us glimmer and buzz like his No. 1 inspiration: flashing neon lights.

"Honestly, I've always been captivated by neon," says Singleton, 27. "It's the way it looks at night, it's the way it looks when you see it in a bar, or on the street or if you're driving through town."

"It's that bright shiny thing that all humans are attracted to."

But actual, retina-searing neon isn't Singleton's medium of choice. His anodes and cathodes are strictly digital.

An OCAD U design grad, Singleton had a lightbulb moment a few years ago after a trip to Las Vegas, a place he calls the "motherland of neon."

He was wandering around the city's Neon Boneyard — a two-acre museum of The Strip's most brilliant signage —  amazed by what all those signmakers from the '50s and '60s could spin out of a few glass tubes, or essentially, very simple lines.

"At the end of the day, I'm a graphic designer, I do vector art. It's all just line work." Making graphics that glow like neon just made sense. Why not merge them together?

I don't tweet at all. I just turn it into neon.- Tim Singleton, artist

Acidic pinks and blues and greens and reds are everywhere in his GIFs, and they all flicker and buzz and glitch to mimic the trashy glam of the real thing.

Says Singleton: "If you just make it in neon and have it glowing, it's really hard to ignore."

"No matter what I'm saying, they're going to listen."

And more often than not, he has a message — always delivered in custom type. Sometimes he quotes songs or books. Sometimes they're just random thoughts.

After a trip to Amsterdam, for example, he reacted to the Red Light District signage with a big, blinking YAS.

"Half the time, I don't tweet at all. I just turn it into neon."

Get an eyeful.

(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)
(Courtesy of the artist)

Watch CBC Arts: Exhibitionists online or on CBC Television. Tune in Fridays at 11:30 p.m. (midnight NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leah Collins

Senior Writer

Since 2015, Leah Collins has been senior writer at CBC Arts, covering Canadian visual art and digital culture in addition to producing CBC Arts’ weekly newsletter (Hi, Art!), which was nominated for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University's journalism school (formerly Ryerson), Leah covered music and celebrity for Postmedia before arriving at CBC.

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