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Dan Flavin Constructed Light, hallway installation at Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. |
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Shining a Light on an Urban Neighborhood after Sunset |
Ann Lislegaard, Crystal world (after J.G.Ballard), loosely based on Ballard’s 1966 novel The Crystal World, is a dual-screen projection of a video animation representing fragments from a journey into a crystalline universe. As a metaphor for the zone between life and death, the crystal forest is both primordial and an entropic projection of a future. Fusing the visionary dreams of Bruno Taut and the modernist architecture of the Italian-Brazilian Lina Bo Bardi — the installation was produced for the do São Pãulo Biennal of 2006 — the work also makes direct reference to Robert Smithson and Eva Hesse. Trees and buildings splinter into a confusion of displaced and multiple planes, white shapes mutate and duplicate, time dissolves and rooms transform into labyrinthine spaces. At times inter-titles appear, collages of phrases quoting Ballard’s book.
Work continues on August 13, putting the vaults in place for Ann Lislegaard’s work.
Spencer Finch, Solar Ice Cream Test.
Natalee has some ice cream.
Sampling the colors of the sunset for ice cream coloration..
Jason Peters, Untitled installation.
Jason Peters, Untitled installation.
Rainer Kehres & Sebastian Hungerer, Chorus, before installation.
Rainer Kehres & Sebastian Hungerer, Chorus, after installation.
Late afternoon work on the Chorus installation. |
The Pulitzer Foundation Conceptually, the Pulitzer's exhibition Dan Flavin: Constructed Light pointed the way. After sunset, surreal beams of fluorescent color emanate from the Pulitzer's windows and bounce off the water court toward the south end of the building, creating between the Pulitzer and its Grand Center neighborhood an immaterial but palpable bond. In a given setting, one may perceive in light anything from basic safety to sublime spirituality. Its meaning lies very much in the context. Some of the artists invited to participate in The Light Project take light's site-specific meanings as ancillary effects; others engage them directly, even playfully. The total effect of The Light Project is, like light itself, difficult to pin down. Though the project is ostensibly on view for only six weeks, if it is successful, it will be outlived by memories that generate a new sense of what Grand Center can be. Ann Lislegaard Crystal World is part of a series of works that Ann has made inspired by science fiction novels and films. Other sources include Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness and Samuel Delany’s Dhalgren. Hundreds of people came out for the opening in spite of monsoon rains — a great celebration of an ambitious project. Spencer Finch Several weeks ago, Spencer Finch visited St. Louis to capture the colors of the sunset… (and to test out the newly purchased soft-serve ice cream machine at a distribution center that specializes in fat fryers and ice cream!). As the sun set, Spencer mixed colors from the Pulitzer’s wooded backyard park and quickly painted a series of watercolors as the sky changed. (He confided in me later, jokingly I suspect, that he’s devised this entire project as a ruse to paint watercolor sunsets). The result was a beautiful (and beautifully simple) series of abstract color studies. From the watercolors, Spencer determined that the color of the ice cream would change over short periods of time—I imagine that the colors will move from golds to pinks to blues and grays… When Spencer returns to St. Louis, he’ll spend a couple of intensive days testing colors in the Contemporary’s café kitchen. From our magnificent visit to the ice-cream machine testing kitchen, we learned that with all the air created by the mixing and freezing of the ice cream, the color is diluted by almost 50%. It goes without saying perhaps that the color testing will be a rigorous endeavor Jason Peters Anyway, the only suggestion I really had was that if the scaffold’s diagonal support struts weren’t absolutely necessary it might not be a bad idea to remove them at some point- my thought being that there is potentially a much more interesting visual tension between the grid and the sculpture if it isn’t confused by all of the extra angles. The relationship to the long history of the grid seems a bit muddied when the grid isn’t exactly right. And that may not be anything Jason is interested in, but it could end up being interesting any way. Of course that’s for Jason to determine… After talking outside with Jason for a few minutes (and a quick “Hello” to Sebastian and Rainer who were rolling by (why did only one of them have a bike?)) we went inside to check out the progress on the buckets themselves. Stephen Jehle, a good friend of White Flag, has signed up for this project and was cleaning out the buckets along with a guy named Drew I just met today. Funny thing: Jason is using 3 1/2 gallon buckets instead of the 5 gallon buckets he used when he had is show at White Flag in March. Why? Apparently because the smaller buckets aren’t a recognized drowning risk to toddlers as determined by the Feds or the bucket industry or whoever, therefore they don’t need the image of a drowning baby in a Ghostbusters circle on the side… so anyone that was reading some kind of morbid humor into the drowning baby warnings back in March was apparently way off base. Last night I got to see JP’s piece illuminated for the first time. I had come by earlier in the day and the thing seemed to double in size in just the eight or ten hours I was gone. Anyway- all the talk yesterday was about density. We discussed the number of remaining buckets to work which lead to some talk about how densely the buckets we’re going to occupy the grid. I think Jason and I agreed that the bucket component was going to need to have as significant a visual weight as possible to deemphasize the support structure- but I could tell he has significant interest in the matrix of the scaffold itself and it wouldn’t surprise me if it became more prominent in his thinking as the piece becomes more fully realized toward the opening. I’m not sure that’s a great idea, I think the bucket form should be primary, but I got that feeling I get when I see an artist whose methodology is pretty well established discovering a new bit of vocabulary…we’ll see. Seeing the thing on site and lit at last quelled some of my reservations about the role of the ambient light in the neighborhood. When you first approach Untitled it doesn’t seem quite bright enough due to the incredibly bright street lamps you need to cross to get into the field, but once your eyes adjust it really takes on some life. Needless to say JP is putting in some long hours- not just on the Light Project but on the various social opportunities an art gig in good ol’ St. Louis provides. I wasn’t a bit surprised to find him out late Saturday night amongst 200 or so cool kids at the rock n’ roll/roller skating/fashion show that had been organized by the Contemporary Art Museum’s registrar Cole Root. It was a good scene (Sebastian and Rainer had made their way there as well)- and Jason was in full effect: pulling off all kinds of funky one-legged skate moves. I didn’t skate but I did notice a weird convergence: Looking at the PFA’s Flavin show I kind of wondered again for the 50th time why and for what any of these light bulb companies make any of these colored fluorescent tubes - I never really notice them anywhere but in Flavins- Anyway, it turns out they use them in busted skating rinks, as I captured so precisely on my phone… Rainer Kehres & Sebastian Hungerer Throughout the summer, members of the St. Louis community have been asked to donate their lamps to contribute to the artists’ project. Their lamps will be strung from scaffolding throughout the interior of the church and illuminated at night. Keep checking this page to follow the installation of this project, learn behind-the-scenes details, neighborhood feedback, history of the church, and more. This section will be regularly updated throughout the month of August, leading up to the opening of all four artworks in the Light Project on September 4th. With the opening of the lamp installation at the Spring Ave. Church quickly approaching, there is a need to write about the history of this building. I read through two library books, newspaper articles, a few papers written by Saint Louis University students, spoke with the Swedenborgian congregation that once worshipped on Spring Ave., and visited many websites. The process was fun in all honesty. I was able to focus on the history of my city and the changes that occurred in Grand Center as time pushed forward. The trends of that history were directly reflected in the shuffle of the groups that occupied the building and when they worshipped within those walls. Now, it is just a shell with no interior. Soon, it will be recycled into a work of art. This church has been home to three congregations: Delmar Avenue Baptist Church (formerly Garrison Avenue Baptist Church), Church of the New Jerusalem (now known as The Church of the Open Word Garden Chapel and located in Creve Coeur, MO), and most recently the National Memorial Church of God in Christ. The first two changed their names more than once with the Church of the New Jerusalem coming out on top with a total of eight name changes including their current name. The first two congregations left under their own power citing reasons that range from too many Baptist churches in close proximity to moving their church out closer to the homes of their members. The National Memorial Church of God in Christ, however, was forced to leave due to an electrical fire that gutted the building in 2001. |
Rainer Kehres & Sebastian Hungerer, Chorus, after installation from the rooftop. |
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