1708 Gallery |
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InLight Richmond
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SELECTED ARTISTSMea Adams and Logan Dennison, Lexington, KY Souvenir: An object acquired to link the owner to a past experience. Souvenir is inspired by the phenomenon of Quantum Entanglement—as particles interact, their physical properties join into a single quantum state that is retained at the sub-atomic level even over long distances. By taking a magnet, each viewer will take with them not only a psychological memory, but a physical memory as well. In addition, the viewer removing the magnet releases the potential physical movement of the light and causes a revelation not only for the one who has removed the stopper, but for all who are to experience the piece from that point on. Inspired by the paradox inherent in photography—the visual representation of what cannot be seen—I investigate the concept of light cancellation. While theoretically a negative and positive of the same image cancel each other, photography melds these opposites, leaving traces of both and creating a “ghost” image. For Double Negative, the basic operation of light visually evokes the way memory operates in sites—like Tredegar—that are imbued with history or trauma. In addition, machines of visual production, large-format slide projectors, stand in for machines of war. The relationship between image production and war is particularly relevant to the Civil War, as staged photographs attempted to reconstruct the unspeakable results and forever changed the way Americans understand violence. Ironclads resurrects the ghosts of the great ironclad ships of the Civil War in tribute to Tredegar Iron Works. The ships silently haunt the waterway, gliding in and out of each other's view, never meeting again after their first (and final) historic encounter. Tredegar Iron Works produced the two-inch thick plates that covered the CSS Virginia—the first ironclad battleship built for use by the South in the Civil War. The Virginia is best known for its historic encounter with the USS Monitor at the Battle of Hampton Roads, which ended in an anti-climactic stalemate. Neither ship ever fought again—the Virginia was dynamited by her crew to escape capture and the Monitor was lost at sea. The story of the CSS Virginia, while rich in epochal overtones and gallantry, is also poignant and absurd. The monumental conflict, the lack of a clear victor and the vessels’ ignominious end demonstrates the futility of war, the limitations of industry, and the capriciousness of fate. Utilizing the voice of an operatic soprano, Andrea Green, DIVA showcases the considerable power of music as the most universal form of communication as it pertains to emotion. The songs performed are liberated from the original operas and exist as individual pieces. Each song was selected for the sheer force of the emotions they express like love, sorrow and joy. The scale and proximity of the performer's face, the most expressive part of the human body, is meant to assist in the viewer's emotional journey. Each aria is performed in its native Italian, forcing an audience unfamiliar with this language or the opera’s plots to experience each song solely as a vehicle of emotion. In Nervous Structure, soft structures illuminated by computer graphics are affected by the motion of viewers. The installation revolves around the idea of interface, which is interpreted as the point of contact between two different entities and is displayed in the work in several ways: between the viewer and the piece (a human/computer interface); between the real and the virtual (the physical structure and its relationship with the projected structure); and between the foreground and background (as the projection interferes with its shadow). Bodies of water form a natural boundary between sides. This divide is one that is ripe with both personal and cultural implications. In a city such as Richmond, and at a site so closely associated with American history, these implications can only be magnified. Sightline (2011) places two eyes opposite each other across the Haxall Canal. Taken from video of an actual conversation, the play of the gazes and the resulting light-bridge evokes a possibility of connection across both physical and conceptual boundaries. I see Samuel Beckett’s “Neither” as a hymn on perception. Perception is the only way to know we are alive in that undetermined waiting state of our life—the state of our being appears uncertain, insecure, senseless and it sometimes seems impossible to know how much of that is memories and illusion and how much reality. Beckett’s text expresses this tension in which we all are living—the existential dimension between the poles of our will (to meaning) and reality. The appearance and rhythm of this projection suggests a memento of or a meditation on the human condition virtually set into the post-industrial, post-gun-producing urban landscape around Tredegar Iron Works. Inspiration Generation is a deconstruct/reconstruct of the river—breaking it down into form and light and then reconstructing in a more formal way. The piece is also a vehicle to convene community, science and art- we have urban youth generating energy, Pedal Power technology engineering the transfer of human energy to light and the piece as a metaphor of the first power source and the heart of Richmond- the river. Recollections at Tredegar is deeply rooted in the specific history of this site. Through the use of video projections, it's possible to reawaken the past in order to consider important events which took place in America. Recollections at Tredegar penetrates time and space as an exploration of a bygone era in our country. The purpose of the work is not to cast judgments or make specific determinations, but simply to provoke thought and to engage and remind us of our past, which has shaped our world and continues to shape our future. Recollections at Tredegar offers the directive to always remember and consider our collective history. I am interested in parallel and alternate histories. The site of Tredegar serves as a platform or stage to draw similarities and differences between our past, present, and future. In a sort of stasis, simulation, or eternal rehearsal, the film crew and actors My interests circulate around particular areas of the new media spectrum: specifically, work that incorporates discarded technologies and appropriated icons. Input==Input utilizes a no-input system that consists of videomixers, VCRs, video distribution amps, equalizers (sound and video), scan converters, and audio mixers. Every piece of equipment's outputs and inputs are patched into the system, affecting each other. The output ranges from loud and stroboscopic to soft, rhyth-matic NTSC rivers, with no inputs that are from an outside source. The video signal is made within the system itself and is feedback that creates its own imagery and sound. Video starts as electronic signal and ends with light. Prior to the American Revolution, Liberty Flags were common forms of protest flown throughout the colonies, claiming loyalty to the crown, but defiant against British policies. The first liberty flag, the Taunton flag, was reportedly first flown on October 21st in 1774. This project raises a new liberty flag on the anniversary of the Taunton Flag. Emergency Flag, constructed from materials usually associated with warnings, danger, and disaster, is at once a warning signal, a rally point, and a monument. Emergency Flag will call attention to the history of the site, the tension of our current union, and the uncertainty of the future. Unlike American flags, which are only to be flown from sunrise to sunset unless properly illuminated, the Emergency Flag will only become apparent after sunset. Homage to Gikomino celebrates a form of art that is often shunned—graffiti—displaying this form of expression in a harmlessly beautiful way, and asking the audience to consider it based solely on formal characteristics. Based off of two designs found in Fulton Hill and Broad Street that are believed to have been made by the same artist, Homage to Gikomino asks, "Can Graffiti be Fine Art?" The original design was found on a trestle in Fulton Hill and though meaning of the text is unknown, it seems to spell "Gikomino". By presenting these formerly 2d designs as moving shapes of projected light, Homage allows the dynamic, modular shapes popular in contemporary graffiti to play out the movement that their designs suggest. The impermanence of light allows the original, anonymous artist to indirectly gain exposure for an illegal craft, raising questions about ownership, freedom of expression, and other art politics. In a contemporary version of Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, the figure of trapeze artist Harvest Moon is separated into red, blue and green films and projected through hand crank LED projectors. When the three RGB films overlap, they form the film in full color. Operated by audience members, it is almost impossible for the three films to be cranked at the same speed causing the image, as it overlaps, to become abstracted. This act of hand cranking refers back to the history of film and Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, which was designed as a peephole for an individual viewer. In Harvest Moon, the audience can participate in different ways, as the role of the viewer looking through the peephole, as one of the hand crank projectionists, or by watching the whole mechanism in action. Memories of the outside world will never have the same tonality as those of home and, by recalling these memories, we add to our store of dreams; we are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost. -Gaston Bachelard, ‘The Poetics of Space’ (1958) The environments created in and on the structure take the form of a burning house, as well as panoramas of dreams and mindscapes creating a 'virtual psycho-reality'. Using fire to conjure imagery, we illuminate memories and the past through the live and transitory medium of digital video. The audience may enter and explore the house and its imagery. Cameras create a live feed of those who enter. We reference the burning of Richmond and the survival of Tredegar during the evacuation by the Confederate Army during the Civil War alongside themes of sanctuary, fortress, love, prison and family. Chocolato Disco is a reflection of the cultural experiences I’ve encountered during my years in Richmond and the United States. Through this video I am able to show how I’ve absorbed American culture, contemporary events, and my own native Korean preferences, and fit them together. Living in America for six years, I’ve seen my own life move in a fast and colorful pace, and the process reminds me of a hectic disco. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. - Thomas Edison In this body of work I use simple lenses to project familiar yet unidentifiable images. The images are the actual components of the light itself, like filaments, glass bulbs and reflecting panels. This minimal and raw approach strips down everything except for the physical elements of the “light”. The projected images are not quite recognizable reflecting the fact that we never really see the actual light and its structure. We only pay attention to what it produces—its luminosity—overlooking the simplicity and beauty of the apparatus and the history behind its invention. A network of glowing circles swims just under the surface of the river. Disrupted by the play of water, each fluorescent ring wavers, becoming in turns blurred and distinct. The grouping at once conjures up bioluminescent sea-life, radioactivity, reflections, and the ephemeral—yet celebratory—nature of the glow-in-dark bracelets from which the web is formed. As a swarm of bioluminescent sea creatures emerges from an arrangement of consumer objects, a fusion is made between real and artificial, natural and manmade. The sense of wonder engendered by a single glow-in-the-dark bracelet is expanded upon by loss of context, repetition, and association with natural phenomena. |
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Peter Fraser,
The Medeology Collective,
InLight Richmond 2010:
Juror's Statement
Inlight Richmond takes as its inspiration Nuit Blanche, Light Night, or White Night events now held in over 125 cities around the world. While borrowing conceptually from the phenomena of midsummer White Nights and Festivals of Light, for Inlight Richmond,1708 Gallery invites artists from around the world to specifically respond to a different geographic location in Richmond, this year, for the third manifestation of InLight Richmond to the historic Shockoe Slip district. Artists were asked to respond to the existing urban infrastructure, bringing art out of the gallery or museum and inserting it into the cultural fabric of the city, inviting artists and audiences alike to explore a specific urban environment in creative, engaging and playful ways.
Shockoe Slip will be transformed by 39 temporary artworks and installations created by 60 artists. Taking as their referent light as a medium but also as an evocation, these works aim to activate the facades, walls, storefronts, doorways, parking lots, and alleyways of Shockoe Slip. While literally lighting up the city, in addition to light artists will employ sound, performance, ceramics, video, electronics, photography, animation, sculpture, and even surveillance technologies to help us re-imagine the urban streetscape in new ways. Inlight Richmond promises to stimulate our senses, as well as guide us in thinking about ways to re-map the city and re-imagine our future in it.
-Amanda McDonald Crowley, InLight Richmond 2010 Juror
Go here to see images and video from InLight Richmond 2010.
InLight Richmond 2009:
Guest juror Adelina Vlas, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, selected 26 international artists out of 65 entries to participate in the 2009 InLight Richmond exhibition. In addition, the juror selected four proposals to be considered for possible permanent installations. The artists are from all over the world including the US, Australia, Canada and Germany (10% international, 75% US, 15% Richmond). The exhibition will include video projections, photography, light installations, sculpture, and performance art.
Re-mapping the city at night
Taking as its departure point light, both as a medium and as a concept, InLight Richmond offers artists annually the opportunity to create projects that address a specific urban environment in a creative and engaging manner. Inserted in spaces that are otherwise vacant or have a limited usage, the selected works aim to activate the facades, walls, storefronts, doorways, and parking lots located between East Grace and East Broad Streets and 5th to 8th Streets of downtown Richmond.
The 26 international artists selected for the 2009 edition of InLight submitted projects that respond to the landscape of Richmond’s city center while also attempting to address more universal issues associ- ated with the contemporary urban context. Diverse artistic practices are represented in this year’s selection, and they include video and sound projec- tions, kinetic sculptures, interactive installations, architectural environments, dance and performance art. Intended to stimulate our senses, these works also act as new points of reference on the map of the city. Their ephemeral presence urges us not only to join in the celebration of light but also to claim back and animate, in a creative and memorable way, a part of the city otherwise inactive at night.
-Adelina Vlas, Curator
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