While we are looking back at past B.C.A. events, we can't forget the special Art Hop show, "Lights Out!"…The opening was Friday September 11, 2009, and the show was on display until Friday September 18.
Artists Mia Feuer, Peter Miller, and Will Walker, in Residence at ‘the Barn’ for the months of August and September (sponsored by the Seven Below Arts Initiative and B.C.A.), showcased original installations at the Annex of Memorial Auditorium.
The works all deal with the manipulation of light and an embodiment of impermanence.
Mia Feuer’s piece, Evacuation Route with Rubies, was inspired by her time spent in deadlocked Washington D.C. traffic, listening to the financial news on radio during the height of the economic recession. In response to the destruction of the financial markets, here she imagines the physical destruction of the monotonous structures that then surrounded her in traffic (the red car brake-lights, the tiled surface of the roadway tunnels). While the structure alludes to heavy metallic and plastic structures, it is made completely from Styrofoam, enamel paint, and actual automotive brake-lights retrieved from the dump.
Peter Miller offered several pieces, playing with light and the effects of the kaleidoscope. Centrally placed within the annex, More Than You and I Will Ever Know beckons the viewer to peer into a triangle-shaped mirror chamber (a large version of a kaleidoscope) that distorts and reflects a video-projection loop of glowing embers.
Another piece, Jewel for David Brewster, consists of a small film projector projecting a loop of 16mm film onto the wall through a kaleidoscope.
A piece entitled There Is a Crack in Everything further explores the ability of mirrors to play with reality. A plinth (a tall white pillar) that appears to be solid is actually two plinths, one on the ground and one hung in the air, so that there is a crack between them. Investigating this crack, there is a mirror "box" without its top placed inside the hollow lower plinth. Inside the mirror box are sixteen tea-candles in a 4x4 configuration. But are there only 16? -- The mirrors give the illusion that the candle flames extend to infinity, evoking the image of a city of lights at night.
Will Walker displayed two pieces. The first, entitled Mansfield (estoy en las nubes), features a meticulously, yet spontaneously crafted cloud. The hollow structure was made from lollipop sticks that were glued onto transparent paper in a repeated triangle pattern. The paper structures were then glued to foam core that helped support the structure. Inside the cloud, fluorescent lights shine with different colored theatrical gels (thin transparent plastic pieces) taped around them. The overall pinkish-purple color of the lit piece gives it an other-worldly feel, far apart from the usual white or grey puffy cloud.
Device for watching the sun (for Clara), his second piece, consists of an arrangement of theatre gels placed inside a cardboard box. An incandescent light shines on the gels through a hole cut into the box's side, and this light bounces off the gels and onto a piece of paper placed over the top opening of the box. The indistinct colors projected onto the paper recall to one's mind photos of the universe, as captured by the Hubble telescope.
The installation of these three independent artists' work was impressively unified in theme. The Memorial Auditorium's Annex was made dark and moody to effectively contrast with a show all about light. Burlington City Arts hopes to stage future shows in the Annex, as this show was a hit.
We wish Mia, Peter, and Will the best of luck on their next projects, and encourage you the reader to come on out to the September Art Hop 2010! (it's never too early to get excited...).
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