NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T
White Brick Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan, 2020
This immersive architectural installation was in place in White Brick Gallery for one month. It had three sets of windows: 1) the front-entry, oriented West; 2) the high strip of windows, oriented South; and 3) the rear entry window/door, oriented South.
West windows
South windows (front)
South windows (rear)
In the morning the gallery glows with a quiet subtlety - related to the use of paper and open walls in japanese architecture. The door sized windows are frosted and create a sense of quietude/tranquility/ privacy, and beautiful subtle lighting.
Painted rectangles line the top of the north wall mirroring the clerestory windows along the south and west sides of the building - the glossy paint reflects the light actively contrasting with the matte surface of the wall.
As the afternoon approaches the sunlight streams in from the south-east and the southern windows begin to project onto the west walls of the building.
In the late afternoon the sun moves west and lowers in the sky, and the light intensifies projecting onto the north and east walls.
The permanent architecture (walls, floors) is always enlivened by the light that comes from these three apertures with their various clear and opacified textures. In the installation, as the sun moves throughout the day, the light moves across diverse surfaces, around corners and into cavities. It seems to bend as it hits curved or angled surfaces. It is absorbed or reflected. The ‘interventions’ I used to set up this exploration of the play of light, shadow, and atmosphere included: coloured mouthblown glass sheets; metal mesh in screens and rolls; wood sticks; glossy transparent film; concrete block, gold leaf, matt and glossy white paint.
Durational changes occur as the sun moves in accordance with the season and time of day. Activation occurs with direct or indirect sunlight, modulated by weather, clouds, time of day. The experience is both meditative… still, subtle, almost dormant, glowing – and exhilarating… surprising, highly-charged, saturated, intense. Coloured shadows are another intriguing aspect of the ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ nature of this spatial experiment.
Click on any image below to view a collection of images from that day.
