The
Burchfield-Penney Art Center
1300 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, New York 14222
May 5- August 19, 2001
Light &
Shadow, 2001, fabric sculpture installation with 45:00 min DVD and 3 video
projectors.
Computer animation
and 3-D virtual reality model for multiple video projections within a fabric sculpture
installation focusing on The Pan American Exposition 1901-2001 at The Burchfield-Penney
Art Center in Buffalo, New York.
SAMPLE VIDEO
with text from an anonymous diary of a young girl who traveled to the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901.
<PLAY VIDEO
Light & Shadow
"When the train had come to a standstill, four or five dirty faced boys scrambled on and rushed through the cars selling assorted fruits in grape baskets for 25 cents each. On through Bear Lake our train rushed and 4 or 5 miles farther on passed the Penn State line into "YORK STATE" Singing, dashing brooks, surged beneath the bridges as the locomotive thundered over, and flashing like silver, as it dashed against obstructing boulders.
Asherville, we pass by, and then, from the car window through the thick foliage of the trees, the beautiful, blue, tranquil waters of Lake Chautauqua were seen, nestling between the lovely, rolling Chautauqin hills and surrounded by the famous Chautauqua farms. Along its winding shores we saw numerous little summer cottages, some which looked like doll houses, and along the edge of the lake were launches and little row boats. Far out on Chautauqua's tranquil waters, rested several yachts; their occupants patiently waiting for the silvery fish to "bite". As the train sped on, we had a wider view of the Lake: seeing the steamers passing and repassing, churning their way through the foaming, sparkling waters; swift little steam launches, sounding their shrill whistles to the echoing hills. And beyond, the green hills roll away in the distance." from Diary of a Young Girl
Light & Shadowwas commissioned by The Western New York Institute for the Arts, as
a work of art based on the anniversary of The Pan American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo.
The exposition in Buffalo was one of a series of
exhibitions that are traced back to a prototype of the 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition in
London. Philadelphia in 1876 and Chicago in 1893. (Leary/Sholes 1998) The history of these expositions evolved
from demonstrations on technology and product design to a kind of global theme park with a
sea of intersecting cultural experiences on the senses, ideas and time. Leary and
Sholes describe these exhibitions as "manifestations of the Industrial
revolution and the global collisions between western civilization and other
cultures".
I began my research on the web. P-a-n_A-m_1901, What
I found on-line, was a diary of a
young girl, (that someone found in their attic), who traveled to the Pan
American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, on a train, from somewhere near Sagertown,
Pennsylvania.I was impressed with the
sophistication of her language and wonderful descriptive abilities to recount her journey
form town to town on her journey toBuffalo.
Her diary was an excellent prime source for a 1901 point-of-view. The diary of this
unknown young girl is a thorough accounting of her train ride and stops, histories of the
communities she past through. Post cards and pictures frame her writing. Her
attitude and understanding of businesses and industries along the way form a social,
commercial and historical portrait of the Great Lakes region and its integral
positioning for westward expansionism.
What this girl notices is America at the height of the Industrial revolution and its transformation into the
age of electricity. But
often, the Young Girls language, grinds it way over cultural diversity in ways that
reveal a lack of understanding of "others". She constantly reminds us of
the celebration of nature, but at the expense of another culture.
The Expositions awaken a desire for ,
the spectacle and what was once entertainment has now been transformed into a media event.
This is precisely what I wanted to create
for the centennial, an Intermedia Cultural Event and this diary, of an
unknown young girl, was a perfect timeline for reflecting on American culture over 100
years.
Having traveled from New York City to Buffalo on many
occasions myself, I decided I would compare her 1901 journey to my own trips to Buffalo. I
created a portrait of 1901 and digitally embedded it into my own 2001 journey to the
"City of Lights". Through a virtual recreation of her 1901 experience
I assembled photos (from the young girls diary) and countless images from The Buffalo
Historical Society, The Charles Penney Research Foundation,and videos of my own trips to Buffalo.
What emerged is a 45:00 minute digital movie of past and
present with images, texts and music layered one upon the other, both in the editing
process and in the presentation process, by means of three video projections that appear
on a spatially “honey-combed” fabric environment.
The motivating question behind this project
positions Light and Shadow together in an interactive conversation rather
than a battle of "good" against "evil". A more practical
question might be, How do you create an open space for something to happen?
Although open
forums have a history of public speaking through all
parts of the world. American Identity is shaped , after all, from insights from the
Greeks and others. Democracy, public speaking, the arts and educational processes are
established very clearly in Plato's Republic. from philosophy to habits of life ,
the Greeks are present in the language of western culture.
New technologies
such as grain elevators, rheostats, asphalt, electricity are transformed into cultural
symbols that create unexpected relationships between past and presentimages of power and identity.What the diary of the unknown young girl presents
is a 19th century point of view that can be compared to 21st century life. the
viewer is asked to question and compare X across a variety of curatorial
choices that include multiple modes of experiencing.
The elements of what she describes covers a range of
ideas that include; commerce, industry, politics, current culture, fashion, International
identity, technology, art, music, dance and spectacles embracing the hopes and dreams of a
new age.
Using digital media allows for layering ideas, time, images, sounds, movies, dance and
words to reveal President William McKinley, anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, Chief
Geranium, EmmaGoldman,
Thomas Edison and an (unknown) young girl as they intersect in the great port of Buffalo.
And we must not
forget the great inventor of the grain elevator, Joseph Dart, whose
electric silos change the TIME it took to ship cargo that fueled American desire.
What happens to experience as TIME is measured in ever shrinking
increments? How is reflection measured in in these complex systems?
The
installation of Light and Shadow proposes to present a
"playful structure" for experiencing the ideals of contemporary American
culture through a look at the ideals presented in the Pan American Exhibition of 1901 in
Buffalo. Within a sea of fabric and photographic / video montage, this installation
uses new technologies in digital photography and video, internet databases and live
teleconferencing are projected into a multi-room fabric installations.
The philosophy within Light and Shadow plays off the work of Walter Benjamin who suggests that we rethink history; not as a linear construct. but rather as a layering and repositioning of images that call attention to new details and relationships to consider.
In the year 2001 this young girl's diary is a prime source that represents the beliefs, customs, habits of a turn of the century America that creates its own image of a world that is unified by commerce and technology.
The health of a frog is equivalent to the health of the earth. As such, frogs are the watchers, alert to change, quite, ready and at the front.
