Moving Towards the Light

This weekend I traveled up to Attleboro, MA to begin installing my piece for See the Light at the Attleboro Arts Museum. Left the house at 5 am for the 4 hour drive, and arrived just as the museum opened, and joined the director, a few other artists, gallery assistants, and volunteers in getting to work!

A feat of modern engineering, I managed to get a 48" diameter masonite circle, 18" square pedestal, projector, computers, painting materials, and hanging supplies all into my wife's Nissan Versa!

Carefully padded and strapped in, and leveled with MDF scraps underneath to make a flat surface

At last I arrived!

Excited to learn my piece has been designated for the Title wall of the show!

laying out my stuff

Got the circle hanging!

readying the projector across the way so that people can walk in front of it to get to the other side and thereby interact with the projection negation.

A brilliant curatorial move, setting up relationships between pieces

resizing the projection in order to mask it off and begin painting

My space was designated by a traffic cone, a la Erik Sanner!

how many identical images can we display at once??

Masking!

Screw Driver + Belt Loop = Side Holster Masking Tape Dispenser!

Masked!

Painted! With 20 minutes to spare on my 8 hr day!

All ready to go with the projection now!

After working until 5:30, the museum staff had about had enough, so it was time to call it a night. The interesting plot twist then came when I learned about the next day's plans...

I had originally planned to stay at a friend's house and come back to work on the projection in the morning. However, it quickly became apparent that the lighting in the gallery would not be set in place until Tuesday, and my piece depended on that lighting being set in order to function properly. On top of it, Saturday (the next day) was occupied by a massive street fair expo that draws 10,000 people and happens to be run by the museum staff, practically in their back yard! I would have had to arrive 4 hours early just to avoid the road blocks and get a parking spot (with a special permit and police dispensation!), and then be essentially in the museum alone as I worked with a piece I wouldn't really be able to do much with on account of the lighting...

Thinking better of this idea, the director and I hatched a plan for me to simply head back home for the weekend and come back on Tuesday as they figure out the lighting. And that's what I'll be doing! Heading up (at the crack of dawn once again) to work Tuesday, stay over with said friends that night, and then hang out until the opening on Wednesday night.

Which makes for quite a week! Add to those logistics my son's second birthday (today, Sunday), moving on Thursday after driving back from the opening (still packing! Ack!), 3 days on Long Island for a wedding next week, and then another installation the following weekend (that I'm still very much figuring out!) Should be quite a ride...

Regardless, this show is going to be fantastic! There's a ton of really amazing work, including holography, light sculpture, motorized fiber-optics, plenty of painting and photography, and other projection work!

I'm very excited! When next I post, you'll get to see the finished product and some shots of the opening! Wish me luck!