Wednesday 7 June 2017

Revel

I don't really know why it's called Revel, but the installation in our local Art Gallery by Canadian artist Ed Pien is fascinating.  And dreamy. And haunting. And more than a little weird. I want my grandchildren to see it.

Here's what the gallery curator says about it:
Revel is like a dream. Upon entering the gallery you become immersed in that dream. Projected light fills the space through a large transparent spiral structure and within the light you catch glimpses of a figure in silhouette. The figure is the shadow of a young woman who gently attends to floating objects that resemble tiny houses and buildings, all within a cloud of organic forms and all appearing upon the gallery wall. As you move deeper into the space you literally become part of the scene as your shadow starts interacting with the shadow of the figure before you. If there is no-one else in the gallery with you it is a little unnerving to be shadow dancing with a ghost.
For Revel, Pien has created an eight-foot high, clear Mylar, spiraling screen that has been meticulously cut into a jungle of branches and organic forms. Several 3D sculptural forms are nested within a web of lines that are suspended from the ceiling at the center of the screen, casting their own shadows.

I walked between the spiral layers to the centre of the transparent labyrinth, with the image of an ethereal woman dancing around me and reflections like shimmering water on the walls. Quiet music was playing. My photos don't do the room justice. I think this is an installation where you have to be there and experience it in person!






The creator of this piece, Ed Pien, will be giving a talk at the Gallery about his work at the end of June. I'm definitely marking my calendar and intend on being there, just to find out what all this means.

13 comments:

  1. It draws you in though it appears as an illusion.

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  2. A Kaleidoscope of dreams, it seems. Greetings!

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  3. Oooooh.
    I would LOVE to see this. I hope you do a follow up post when you have heard the artist speak.

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  4. Somewhat haunting. I'd like to hear the artists thoughts...:)

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  5. "Revel" implies that visitors would “revel”, enjoy very much like you, in this dream-like experience, I guess.

    Regarding your comment, Isaac’s reason to choose Japan as school project sounds so charming. Wish him a good job. Talking of baseball in Japan, though soccer continues to gain more and more attention, baseball is the most popular sports. The National High School Baseball Championship, held in spring and summer, is the largest amateur sport event in Japan.

    Yoko

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  6. Well, I dunno what it means, either. Good luck. What? You don't like beautiful photos that have been manipulated by a creative mind? Remember that every photo that flips out of your digital camera has already been manipulated several times - en camera. :)

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  7. With art installations it can often be hard to translate them one dimensionally. Hope we get to hear what this ethereal creation represents Shammi.. happy weekend.

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  8. This sounds like a fascinating experience. I would enjoy seeing it. Look forward to what you learn about it from the artist.

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  9. Shammi that kookaburra WAS sitting in an old gum tree, now you're going to be humming it all over again ๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜€

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  10. Lovely art and yes, please, write a post about arrhythmia, I too dance to an arythmical drum and it is nasty!

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  11. Greetings again and thanks for your comment on Lowellsphotos. Re the car and the sinkhole...not my car and it was not in our immediate area although we do have some sinkholes. That would be a terrible thing to fall into one of those things. Our soil is very loose, made up of sand and porous limestone which contains a lot of prehistoric shells from when this part of the world was under water. So when it rains heavily the rain washes the soil from around the rock and voila! a sinkhole!

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  12. Surreal with that transparency that makes one wonder. I would love to be there and see it. Thanks for sharing this, it makes me feel as if I was there.

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  13. As Alice said, "Curiouser and curiouser!" :-)

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All comments welcome.... unless your name is Anonymous..