YERP / YUPA / RURRP / YARUP

YERP

YUPA

RURRP

YARUP

Lanterns: Infant milk formula cartons and LED lights
Dan Shipsides
2010

These lanterns are made from formula milk cartons with LED lighting.
The texts cuts out of the cartons phonetically spell out my two year
old's attempts at pronouncing Europe or Europa.

 

The first iteration of one of these lanterns came about during a via ferrata climb in the Dolomites with Neal Beggs in 2010.

We climbed this route overnight to the summit of Cima Lagazuoi (2750m) in the Dolomites. However this route is unusual because it goes up the inside of the mountain – an ascent of 400 meters through dark mine shafts. These tunnels and shafts were engineered in order to place and detonate explosives and destroy the strategic Austrian gun placements, barracks and troops along with the summit itself.  It was an industrial and brutal technique but there were several occurrences of this happening throughout this warfront. The climbing route now emerges from the same tunnels out onto the blasted sloping plateau which now makes up the summit.

We climbed the ghostly route starting at dusk and consequently came out on the summit at dawn. Stopping to sleep and rest in the dark we spoke about where we were and I cut the word EUROPE into my empty drink carton and then used my headtorch to illuminate it through the neck. The lantern seemed pathetic and potent at the same time – the power of light in the dark counter-balanced by the gloomy aspect of where we were in the world and what had happened there.

 

This trip also features in this Shipsides and Beggs Projects video:
http://www.danshipsides.com/DshipsidesWeb/YUPASTAR.html

 

Work shown:

Sept 2014 GLASSHOUSE. Shankill Library Gallery, Belfast. Group show.