Blind As Our Hearts Eclipse

April and May have been some of the craziest, busiest months I've had in the past few years. The former was primarily occupied by putting together the Post Penumbra show with my friends, as part of the Upper Six Hundreds. We spent so much time and energy in the last couple of weeks leading up to it, that for a moment I felt like a student in art school all-over again – pulling all-nighters and making a mess putting together a spectacle fueled from the creative channels inside.

The show itself was a great success and a testament to our will as an art collective. The theme for the show was based around the first light from an eclipse, so we blanketed the show entirely in white and stressed to the contributors that their individual pieces should try and follow in suit. We decked the place out in white fabric, white walls, white furniture, white ornaments and decor. Then, we ourselves, donned white to the extent with which we could. We had over 500 paid attendees, along with our own families and circles of friends and the night ended with a post-party in the space where everyone got pretty smashed and silliness ensued. Below are some shots of the evenings events:

(Fabric strewn ceilings with upside-down hanging table lamps)

(Spotlight desk lamps individually installed above to illuminate each piece)

(Sculptural and interactive installations)

(Band playing a set of cover songs with "white" or theme-related titles)

(Backlit shadow puppet theater)

(Illuminated ceilings and twist-fabric beams)

(Jellyfish-like fabric light fixture)

(Costumes worn by the collective - this is mine)

Art At Will also did a press segment on the event, interviewing some of the collective and guest artists, as well doing a nice montage of the general setup of the show. View it below, the portion on our begins right around the 3:25 mark - so feel free to skip ahead to it:

Aside from helping construct the show, I also contributed a piece entitled Hold The Way, which was largely inspired by the song of the same name by Grouper. I interpreted the mood of the song in my own way and adapted it to the theme of the show, creating the below using mixed media (wood, paint, paper, transfer toner, found photos & books, whiteout, etc).





I don't know what the future holds for the Upper Six Hundreds, there have been talks about starting our own permanent gallery. Regardless of what we do next, whether it be a gallery or another one-night-only exhibition like the past three we've done, it will be difficult to top the Post Penumbra exhibition.

To view more from the event, check out the Upper Six Hundreds blog. To view more photos, you can also check my Flickr set from the event.