Beaming in to the Chelsea Art Museum this week is artist Raphaele Shirley's latest installment in her series of light based media work, "0910 Light Shots (Shooting Squares)". Once again I could not resist looking behind the pre-show wrappings, and listening to part of technical planning session between the artist and museum staff Tuesday afternoon was truly a lesson on the state of art and technology in the second decade of the 21st century - it takes a tech-savvy artist and skilled team of experts to engage your senses and transform your awareness.
photo by Mark Wiener
The photo above shows the artist measuring the space on this the first day of installation, and the space is truly a void, lit only by the flash from the camera. Using light beams to draw lines and planes in space, Shirley is transforming the black box of the Project Room for New Media into an ephemeral object - visitors will interact with the installation as they move through the space, experiencing the evolution of the composition's color and perspective with their changing POV - as well as a few surprises.
Raphaele Shirley, "Shooting Square" 2010 mixed media - Studio test
"The stiller it is, near frozen in a configuration, the more we become aware of its movement and permanent immobility, traveling at the speed of itself, of light. And as this super-fast thing is now somehow slowed down, through the tension between the drawn geometry of its path and itself, as we can now see its trajectory, and can almost touch it somehow - controlled nature - one can take pause, rest the mind and look. And then continue to look at it, it does not go away. This is the thing that moves but does not leave. The friend you wish for, the one that never goes away yet always fascinates you." - Raphaele Shirley May 18, 2010
The exhibition, curated by Nina Colosi, opens Thursday, March 20th, with a reception from 6 - 8 PM and runs through June 19th. More at http://chelseaartmuseum.org/ and http://www.raphaeleshirley.com/
