Client: Orlando Museum of Art

Overview

Spaceresearchcentre/AKA Southern Lights, via the Transmutable Central Dharma Gateway Incorporating the 5 Known Elements
This work is conceived as a non-terrestrial environment that transports the visitor to an alternate plane of thought, free from everyday stress and worries. Concepts for the environment coalesced from Indian Vedic knowledge, John Muir’s conservation ethics, Native American connections to the natural world, and contemporary thoughts in science relating to our understanding of the universe. Immersive video projections light up sculptural assemblages, paintings, and photo-based works evoking forms reminiscent of geometries, crystalline shapes, primordial plants, and outer space. In this work, analog and digitally constructed video footage of seeds, galaxies, flora, and fauna spill across the floor, ceiling, and walls, creating an immersive interconnected world. A

Goals

Goal was to create a fully immersive experience for museum and visitors. The gallery size had 17 foot ceilings and was roughly 30 by 30 feet. It was very important to create the physical elements to be the right size in the space, to accommodate public flow and make it an amazing place.

Process

The museum curators approached me for this show and I started off building a maquette to gauge size and flow. Once the final design was done, I had the materials fabricated and we assembled the large components on site. I designed the while installation in modular pieces to facilitate transportation as the finished work would not have fit on a truck.The museum staff were very skilled in installing the finished work as well.While the materials were being constructed, I also shot and produced video art to integrate into the project.

Additional Information

Visitors are able to interact with this artwork by going into the central sculpture and exploring inside it. The work is also constantly changing as video and sculpture mix and flow over each other. The experience is always dynamic and ever changing.