Photos: Iole Alessandrini
Between Planes

Laser, Video, Haze, Natural Light Installation
H 12' W 12' D 15'
04. 23. 01 - 05. 31. 01
Bellevue Art Museum. Bellevue WA

Ackowledgements

Bellevue Art Museum

Special Thanks

Ed Mannery
Howard T. Howlett
Howard Meeks
Brian Wallace

Between Planes

Summary

The residency room is both the laboratory and site of this installation. Inside, rectangular luminous contours made by the sun are seen as light extrusions forced trough a 1 inch, continuous gap around masking board applied over a floor to ceiling window. They are the natural experience of artificially created contours as well as the background for a pair of optics and lasers projecting thin, luminous lines. When the room is filled with smoke, contours are revealed as three-dimensional boundaries that intersect with each other and divide the space.

Project Description

The opportunity of a residency at the Bellevue Art Museum allowed me to bring to completion a number of studies on both natural and artificial light. Throughout the experience, I observed sun light patterns and incorporated them to luminous planes made with lasers. The apparently tangible boundaries, which reflect from optics using a commercial Class IIIb green laser, intersect those made by the sun entering the room, which has a south exposure. The light of the sun and the distinctive coherent radiation of the laser are isolated, studied, and then intertwined with each other. Bounded by walls and revealed by smoke, virtual boundaries made with sun and laser float in space manifesting their synergistic qualities: beauty, brilliance, purity and radiance. The installation was further mediated by a TV monitor which channeled live feeds from a video camera aimed at the laser planes and the window.