Last month it was my pleasure to have been part of a wonderful experiment in a new way of viewing art. In darkness.
Only flashlights, provided by the organizers of the exhibition (Lanell Dike, Becky Jaffe and Carrie-Andrea Kaye), given to the attending public to view the art, lighted the artwork. It was a three-day event and the exhibition gallery was one of many venues of the Oakland Art Murmur event.
It sounds a bit wacky, or at least it did to me when I was first invited to participate; but it was that element of wackiness that intrigued me and tempted me to join in the experiment. I have absolutely no regrets.
Barcelona, 2 am, photo by Styrous®
The amazing thing is that my work took on a dimension it had never had nor had it ever occurred to me to try viewing it in that manner. I had four pieces in the show, street scenes at night. The strangest thing happened when my work was viewed with a flashlight. The image took on an eerie, other-world quality as shown in the photograph (above right) taken by Debra Jan Bibel by flashlight. They came alive, as I have never seen them do before.
There were 15 artists who participated in the show (that's me on the left.) The work ranged from sculpture, 2-D & 3-D art, photography and video.
The artists were:
C. Brooks
Mercy Calman
Kamran Golriz
Eli Jenkins
Elisa Salasin
photo by Styrous®
Across from me, Becky Jaffe showed her ethereal transparencies.
on display in the middle of the room. It was remarkable.
In the backroom, Carrie-Andrea Kaye created an installation piece featuring video by Gustavo Porras.
photo by Eli Jenkins
My favorite work in the show was a photo by Eli Jenkins;
a delightfully playful optical illusion image that I found charming and engaging.
I wasn't able to attend the opening night on Friday due to my photo shoot of the BAMscape I had scheduled but I was there on Saturday evening to enjoy the great music of Cara Wick, on guitar, and Kim Lembo, playing violin.
On Sunday, it was beautiful and sunny and in the back of the building an outdoor living room was set up with drawing materials for people and children to create work that could then be brought into the darkened gallery to view under the black lights.
What a great experience it was. Good job Frisbie.
