New York City can perhaps be thought of as the epicentre of the arts. Artists in the city are constantly creating. Anthony McCall’s Solid Light Works is an embodiment of that innovation. It challenges the conventional relationship between the artist and the audience, where the audience is simply the observer of art. Instead, McCall’s installation immerses the mere spectator into his art.
McCall’s piece comprises of six vertical and horizontal projections of light on the floor and on walls. These three dimensional projections are the result of light sources installed in the ceilings and walls. The lights form distinct shapes on each surface, which continually transform and evolve. Also, Pioneer Works, the home of Solid Light Works, is kept pitch black so that our sole focus is on the installation itself.
McCall describes his artwork as a mixture of sculpture, cinema, and drawing. The installation can be thought of as a sculpture because it encourages the audience’s involvement in the artpiece, whether it be standing in one spot or moving around. As the piece is constantly changing through a progression of time, it’s also cinema. The installation is also a drawing because it originated from line drawings of the light reflections.
It’s so easy to spend hours at this one place, because the installation is never the same. No two pictures will ever be the same. This isn’t just because the light reflections are shifting, but because you can intervene as little as possible or as much as possible. Whether it be with your hands, your face, your legs, your clothes, the projections of light turn out wildly different. In this piece, you’re empowered to interact with the artwork in any way you wish.
What do other students living in the city have to say about McCall’s work? Why do they think it’s new and innovative?
Alejandra Arevalo, a first year student at NYU, believes that Solid Light Works is “a new approach to art, it’s an approach that a lot of artists are trying to have right now to make it more interactive”. Alejandra emphasized that the effect of the installation on people is paramount, mentioning that, “It’s so nice that I saw people so excited to be there and play around with light and trying to create the best artwork they could, which is something that I think somehow was lost decades ago. Sometimes I feel like people go to art museums and they get bored because they don’t feel connected to the artworks. And then right now, with the rise of installations, I feel that people are getting more connected to art”.
Conventional mediums of art such as sculptures, films and drawings alone, might not have been able to elicit a significant or meaningful response. This is unlike McCall’s installation, as he meshes all of these types of artwork together in order to impact his audience. Alejandra went on to say that “Since we live in this fast paced world where we really don’t stop to look at things and consider their deeper meanings, I feel that art has a harder task of reaching people” and as a result, making people a part of the art definitely influences people’s attitude towards art. But why is it important that we involve ourselves with art? What do we learn from it?
Jiasing Chu, also a freshman at NYU, thinks that “it gives people perspective, especially of a life that you don’t know.” She emphasizes that art “elicits that emotional response” and “compared to simply reading facts, I don’t think that hits you as hard as art does”. Alejandra adds that “whenever I go to a new city, I love to go to the art museum, just because it gives me a perspective of how that city is, how the people there think and it definitely somehow connects me to that new place”. This shows that gaining a new perspective from art could also help people forge a strong affinity to the city itself.
Perhaps immersing yourself in Solid Light Works to attain a new outlook and maybe even feel more connected to yourself and the city.
The installation lasts from 12 January to 11 March, 2018 at Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer St. Brooklyn.
Images Credits:
1 by Kathy Xu
2, 3, 5 by Fareeha Mahmood
4 by Alejandra Arevalo