How often is it that a town gets art emanations in two locations at just about the same time? Last week, when Libby and I were at UArts talking to a senior practices class that’s held in the Gershman Y building, we both ducked in to the Y’s Borowsky Gallery to check out the Kaballah art exhibit. The art emanation piece by Cheselyn Amato that involved lights and colored acetate and reflections and shadows on the wall caught my eye. Pretty and with lights and shadow? I’ll look. (image is Amato’s installation)
I know nothing about Kaballah but I thought the piece created a mood that was a mix of New Age and child’s play.
swenbeck, paul
And then I thought, Joy Feasley and Paul Swenbeck should see this. Feasley and Swenbeck often use lights passing through acetate and other materials to create emanations of a witchy variety. Perhaps you saw their piece near the ceiling at Operation RAW. (image)
feasley, joy
I guess all art attempts to make magic through some trickery or other. These two instances seem to get down to some primal level of experience akin to staring at a bonfire in the dark or seeing a rainbow. While in both cases the art has nothing to do with natural phenomena, both installations use natural phenomena — light and shadow — to evoke mysteries. Funny.
