Green lightning (computing)

Green Lightning refers to a sculpture created by artist Billie Lawless. An original model was created for ArtPark in the fall of 1983. The work featured thirteen lightning bolts ranging in height from 13' to 30' shooting into the ground on a site 180' x 160'. On a main sign like structure were four boxes 8' X 10' X 2' with images silk screened on the back dealing with social issues contemporary in nature. In front of these images and protected by clear LEXAN panels were neon tubes of a graffiti image that Lawless found on the side of a condemned building. These figures were a pun on the Planters Peanut character dressed up with a top hat and cane that could be interpreted as dancing penises. In the fourth box which was part of a sixty second sequence the character removes his top hat and takes a bow to the crowd. Behind and above the main steel structure that held these boxes were four rows of brightly painted tin stars that spun in the wind, an obvious metaphor for the cosmos.

Green Lightning, 1984. Steel, LEXAN, tin, transformers, neon, electricity, wire, animators and concrete.

Green Lightning, 1984. Steel, LEXAN, tin, transformers, neon, electricity, wire, animators and concrete.

The sculpture was built in Buffalo, NY over a period of two years and dedicated in November of 1984. Construction of the work on its site started in 6 October, and it was completed and lit on November 15th. Some city officials found the work to be offensive, and Mayor Jimmy Griffin (politician) ordered it removed on 20 November, 5 days later. Initial attempts at removing the sculpture began under the cover of night by a sign company with no knowledge of handling sculpture and resulted in significant damage to the work. The destruction of the sculpture was stopped when a New York State Supreme Court Justice, Vincent Doyle, issued an injunction and publicly denounced the actions of the Mayor in a hearing the following day. Lawless sued, claiming that his rights were being infringed; the city contended that the sculpture, as erected, was not representative of the model they had been presented with. Billie Lawless won the law suit but was awarded no damages.

Green Lightning, Buffalo, New York, November 1984.

Green Lightning, Buffalo, New York, November 1984.

The sculpture was eventually removed from Buffalo and relocated to Chicago at Sculpture Chicago 1985 where it stood unmolested for ten years.

It is currently in storage in Cleveland, Ohio