Shade-shifting Shapes at ArtSpace 404
Illuminated Architecture II – Immersed in Light and Sound
Aug 8, 2009
Artist, inventor, instructor, Michael McGinnis has created an innovative installation in Santa Rosa, California. As an instructor, McGinnis teaches design at Santa Rosa Junior College. As an inventor he holds three patents in picture framing and matte devices, as well as inventing Superplexus a three-dimensional maze-puzzle that was purchased and manufactured by Hasbro Toys.
As for art, he has a new installation, Illuminated Architecture II, at ArtSpace404 gallery in Santa Rosa. The show’s notes describe the installation as an all-encompassing environment of light and sound. Stepping into Illuminated Architecture II, one feels a sense of wonder and of discovery, like stepping into a new world. The computer-controlled space is alternately calming and exciting.
Application Doesn't Matter
McGinnis has created his world out of insulated foam panels purchased at a local hardware store, three Apple iMac computers and three consumer-grade digital projectors rated at about 2500 lumens each. An audio loop plays two of his synthesizer compositions, one soothing, one energetic. When asked what application the computers where running, McGinnis replied: "It almost doesn’t matter - Quicktime, Adobe Animation, almost anything."
The three main areas of the installation, as described by McGinnis, are Seven Cubes, The Hook and Sculpture Stands. Each of the three areas is illuminated by slowly shifting shades of pastel and primary colors, as well as checkerboard and granite patterns. The changing hues and patterns are organic, chameleon-like. It feels like stepping into a new dimension where light has a constantly changing character. The blend of regular polygons and organic curves reflects the larger world of angular man-made objects set in the curvilinear realm of nature.
Ephemeral Sculpture
It’s hard to overstate the theatricality of the installation. By design the show has the impermanence of a performance. "It’s about getting through ideas of sculpture as permanent. I wanted to create ephemeral sculpture," said McGinnis. He said that the core inspiration for the show came from his childhood when he’d see the light from passing cars’ headlights crawl and stretch along his bedroom wall.
The exhibition’s literature describes it this way:Through applications of projected pattern, color, and auditory stimulus, artist Michael McGinnis constructs an installation that explores our interpretations and interactions with the physical space around us. 'Illuminated Architecture' defines movement and time, engaging viewers by allowing them to enter the work/space and demonstrating the theatrical possibilities in fine art.
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
In addition to the ArtSpace404 installation, McGinnis has Superplexus Vortex, a three-dimensional maze puzzle, on display as part of Intersections: Puzzles as Art at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art through August 16. Stacked levels of a wooden maze raceway on a gyroscopic axis are enclosed in a 3-foot diameter Plexiglas globe. The object is to guide the stainless steel ball bearing through the maze, in similar fashion to what we did as children with palm-size, roll-the-bearings-in-the-clown's-eyes novelties.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about the exhibition is that McGinnis put it together in five days - he bemusedly confessed to confusing the closing date as the opening. Fortunately, a call from the gallery got him going. He promised that the display will keep on changing as he modifies its elements on the computers. The exhibition runs through September 11, 2009.
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