Besides bringing to the public a retrospective of photographer Boudicca Amat’s work in Second Life, The 22 art space opened yesterday, August 8th, with a special installation that Randy and I conceived as an interactive experience for the gallery’s public: Carol Anne. The installation is based on a set of diverse characters which are placed in a seemingly random way (and of course their placement is not even remotely random), in a restricted area – and that are affected by each visitor, whose interplay with them, we hope, will open doors to further interrogation and reflection.
When I mentioned to Randy that I had some ideas for an art work, he helped me define what was actually feasible and polish it – and that’s how Carol Anne was born. Since the project was actively discussed by us at each phase, the outcome is neither something that came by instinct nor some irreflective product of aestheticism. Carol Anne was built on the basis of a concept, but it is interesting to notice that the idea that it bears did not precede the work itself: it was structured at the same time as the whole exhibition was taking form.
I was basically responsible for the static characters that, together, constitute the installation. Randy, for the scripts that transformed them into an experience and for the props that accompany some of them. The result is an encounter with the ideas of both enlightenment and extinction and with the ambiguity of closeness in our times.
Carol Anne is also the result of our dedication to our new project: The 22 art space in Bellisseria. It was conceived to fit there and to celebrate the opening of the gallery. Along with 5 times Boudicca, the photo exhibition that The 22 is also currently housing, Carol Anne runs until October 24th. Randy and I hope that visitors enjoy it and that it is useful somehow for navigating in today’s worlds – both the virtual and the atomic ones (and maybe our inner world, too, and any other world in which we may live).
I really enjoyed this installation, and I’m not usually a fan of such things.
Often as not I haven’t a clue what’s trying to be conveyed……..and even when they’re explained to me they leave me cold.
But this one I ‘got’ ..it made sense to me, and even better – it got my brain working!
My partner, Anthony, really loved it too. So much so that he’s made the trip to it twice – and he’s a professed non artsy person!
It has really made an impact on him.
We’re both looking forward to the next one!
Thank you! We, ourselves, got a bit addicted to walking among the characters there, I have to admit it – and we did not expect that!
As I said, Randy and I have actually discussed the project, how we understood it, what we intended with it (and it wasn’t anything ambitious, I mean, we have never had the illusion that we could anticipate all the possible interpretations or how would different people receive it). So, it’s great to see that someone “got” it, it’s rewarding.
Among the things we intended, there is this: to show that a gallery in Bellisseria has potential not only to host an amazing photo exhibition as yours, but also a project in a skybox and maybe other ideas too. Let’s see what comes from it 🙂
And now it occurred to me: don’t they both have to do with light? Both exhibitions, I mean. Each one in its own way, of course.
They certainly do! And each benefits from the other by their proximity …serendipitous huh? 🙂