Neighborhood

Light installation — illuminated fabric, LED, clothesline, steel
Sergey Kim, 2019–present

Illuminated laundry hangs on a line strung between buildings. Blouses, trousers, dresses, a pair of Turkish pants, a Moroccan djellaba, a traditional Jewish dress. Every garment, every clothespin, the line itself, all glow from within.

Neighborhood installed over the Oudeschans canal in Amsterdam at night

The image is immediately familiar: laundry drying on a summer day. But here the clothes belong to no one and everyone. They represent the people who live side by side in a city without ever meeting. In large cities we share walls but not words.

"So beautiful, in so many ways."

— The Jealous Curator

Neighborhood uses the most ordinary domestic act, hanging clothes to dry, to make visible the quiet fact that we are all here together.

Six cities, four continents

Neighborhood at Battersea Power Station, London
London 2023
Glowing garments reflected in the Amsterdam canal
Amsterdam 2019
Installation view in Shanghai
Shanghai 2020
Neighborhood at South Australian Museum Garden, Adelaide
Adelaide 2022
Neighborhood suspended above Cady's Alley, Washington D.C.
Washington D.C. 2023
Fabricating the illuminated garments in the studio

Process

Each garment is hand-sewn with LED strips embedded in the fabric seams. The clothesline itself carries both structural cable and electrical wiring, powering every piece from a single connection point.

Exhibitions

  • Amsterdam Light FestivalEdition 8, "DISRUPT!" — Amsterdam, 2019–2020
  • Light Art CollectionShanghai, 2020
  • Illuminate AdelaideCity Lights — Adelaide, 2022
  • Battersea Power Station Light FestivalLondon, 2023
  • Georgetown GlowWashington, D.C., 2023