With a honed eye on anything and everything related to a facet of my installation, I smiled with delight at Jan Staller's White Series currently at Alan Klotz Gallery. I've followed Staller's work over the years, it remains sharp and surreal, a deliberate treatment of color which sings equally from 8-hour night exposures--like the one of the old West Side Highway on/off ramps--as the ones of construction items suspended from cranes outside his Charles Street place, as reported on the Gallery's website.
The ceiling at Gowanus Ballroom is in varying heights; upon entry, where SIS will hang, is around 20 feet; it opens to another section double in height which further breaks into a mezzanine which will contain more art and a low-ceilinged shop, off-limits to viewers. SIS could never hang in anywhere other than where it is; the ceilings would be too hard to negotiate.
Like everything else that has never been done before, it has to begin with a sketch.
The shop master drew what he was thinking for the riggers to follow; and it started to take shape. Saturday was a dry run; it took a long time. As a site-specific work, the installation must be designed anew every time it shows. Being open to possibilities, deep breaths and smiling, and hoping that it works. In the end, it always does.
Friday in the afternoon, the entire installation goes up again, this time, looped through the metal pipe on the ceiling, according to the diagram. It's leveled off, and the electronics installed. I want to bring it there with just the volume needing adjustment. Then, it's show time! |
| Four of the nine hanging, still with their bubble wrap. |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your feedback.