In Light
downtown Atlanta, GA
june 22, 2020 - august 9, 2020
An open air exhibition exploring themes of connection in uncertain times across 3 digital billboards
Featuring Atlanta Artists: Alicia Renee Ball, Autumn Nelson, Chibu Okere, Emmanuel Rivas, Fly on a Wall, Jane Foley, Kris Pilcher, Lucia Riffel, Paul Stephen Benjamin, The House of June.
Curated by Dashboard and Mint Gallery; Presented by Arts and Entertainment District & Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. Located at 101 Marietta Street, 235 Peachtree Street (Peachtree Center) & 89 Centennial Olympic Park Dr (Reverb Hotel).
event Press
Digital billboards display pieces by Atlanta artists - WSB-TV Atlanta
Arts & Entertainment Atlanta Becomes a Community-Oriented Platform in Inaugural Year - Saporta Report
Exhibition Guide
Artists
Alicia Renee Ball (b. 1987), Sanctuary (Honoring Home) / Meditation, 2020. 3D Model
Home becomes a sanctuary. For some, home represents protection in times of uncertainty. To others home rebelliously presents itself as a prison; an experience of confinement.
For me....home becomes my blessing. A quiet place to pause, to break and to reassess the current state of affairs occuring in my life. Home is my place of solace, my peace of mind. Home affords me the rare opportunity, in this time, to journey inward, to engage a personal healing practice that consists of: rest, meditation, actively showcasing gratitude, prayer, creating, not-creating, eating, not-eating, crying, not-crying.
In these times, home becomes my sanctum. I can sit still, be in complete silence, or listen to music loud. I can breathe and become mindful, I can be productive and I can honor myself when I am feeling the exact opposite.
I embrace these moments alone, believing it will last only for a season. Using this time to not only stay safe, but to honor both my feelings of light and dark, carving out the space in time, previously unavailable, to do the work that will bring me healing.”
Chibu Okere (b. 1992), BlackStar, 2020. Digital Work
“I like to use color and movement in my works to restore a feeling of nostalgia with totally new ideas and concepts. Often using the juxtaposition of light hearted characters to convey more serious subjects. My work explores the world as we know it right now from the view of a new generation. Isolation, Social media, and Distance all are things a totally generation of kids/young adults are experiencing constantly. Although these times are scary, we as a people always adapt and live on. I like to acknowledge the times we are in while also highlighting the joy we always find through difficulties.”
Fly on a Wall (Founded 2014), 2squared, 2020. Video
“Mt current project, Tile, deals with memory, perception, and a non linear approach to time. 2Squared comes from the same world.
2Squared is a future memory. It is a sensation that evokes an event in our shared consciousness. The projected relationships lean on timeless themes; Togetherness, loss and uncertainty.
We are all building such strong feelings and experiences right now. The concept for a short video suspended above our heads brought the Fly on a Wall team to the idea of a shared thought bubble rising above the streets. Atlantans driving through an altered city with the same ideas on their mind. The images will hopefully give a little beauty and an image to assign our feelings to for a moment.” - Nathan Griswold
Autumn Nelson (b. 1999), Will We be okay (2020). Oil on wooden panel
“When I was invited to participate, I knew I wanted to create something comforting yet completely non-conforming to the work I’ve seen during this time. When creating this work, digging into previous work looking for ways I could employ these pieces for you. Breaking down my work to human experience and holding a magnifying glass up. My emphasis of hi key color, evoking this sense of isolation with one’s self and with our loved ones. My experience with this quarantine so far has been constantly surrounding the TV with family. Constantly hoping for a positive massage, unfortunately few of them are. I find myself having to comfort myself. This being the reason why I choose to have myself -play both roles. Creating this looking glass to this intimate conversation with oneself. That I feel becomes this universal experience for humanity now. “
Emmanuel Rivas (b. 1996), Emotions for Fuel, 2020. Digital
“I always Use to say, "I want the viewer of my art to leave with some new self-realization or reflection." However nice that is. I create works that broadcast, "My Inner," which consists of a pretty grand spectrum of everything; my memories, reflections, convictions, truths, lies, love, hate, emotions, and Everything in between. Therefore, my artwork is extremely selfish, and is a Right of Passage, for me personally."
Jane Foley (b. 1985), Life Saving and Water Safety, 2020. Digital video, with performers Hez Stalcup and Jake Krakovsky
Foley’s sound works explore isolation versus connectivity in public spaces, beginning with subtle repeated experiments in deep listening and reciprocity, often traveling to investigate suppressed histories of cities with the lens of recorded sound. She uses video and performance as frameworks for collaborations, favoring communication, experimentation, and process. As a former collegiate synchronized swimmer and a current video artist, she has recently been mashing up the visual language of water, leisure, and sport with gestures of support, intimacy, and choreographic duets by making underwater dance films of people in swimming pools.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Kris Pilcher (b. 1982), Fermi Paradox, 2020. Data, Code, Unity
“I am an award winning mixed reality artist who brings dreams to life through installations and digital technology. I create hyper narrative projects that destroy the boundaries of reality.
My work is informed by the great digital divide. I am interested in emerging forms of altered reality thanks to our rapidly advancing technology and how these new realities affect our cognition and interaction with the normality of physical existence.
I believe that mankind is on a precipice of technological evolution and I find it interesting to be able to experience and explore this transition. My work has been seen throughout the world and in Corporate Sectors.“
Paul Stephen Benjamin (b.1966), We Shall Overcome, 2020. Video
Paul Stephen Benjamin is a multidisciplinary artist. His work brings the past and future together through use of the color black. The color black becomes an entry point into discussions of Blackness. Benjamin creates multi-layered artworks, which incorporate history, text and popular culture. He employs painting, sculpture, installation and video in his work.
His work focuses on the complex nature of blackness – simultaneously static and dynamic - and raises questions that can only be answered through viewers personal experiences. Multiple layers of meaning and thought are a consistent element and signature of his work regardless of the medium.
Benjamin furthers his aesthetic and conceptual use of the color black through his investigation of sound. He uses the question, “If the color black had a sound - what would it sound like?” Appropriating video footage, Benjamin manipulates and edits the material to create provocative sound and video sculptures.
Lucia Riffel, restless / float, 2020. 3D animation
“My work leads one to the place between their mind and their screen, between space and time, between thought and feeling, and into the everyday sublime. I create spaces in-screen and in-real-life that mix the surreal, cinematic, and commonplace through 3D animation and installation. Looping slowly yet infinitely, these spaces allow one to look through the mirror of the screen and enter a meditative headspace beyond as well as within. The post-internet culture of distraction leads our minds to occupy themselves in any way except internally - my work utilizes these same experiential stimuli to awaken interiority in a suspended metaphysical twilight zone.”
Ebony Blanding (b. 1985) & Amber L.N. Bournett (b. 1986) / The House of June, LEVITATE LEVITATE LEVITATE , 2017. Short digital film
“LEVITATE LEVITATE LEVITATE came to be out of processing the viral and traumatic nature of black death in the media shared far and wide on social media networks. Our imagination needed to escape the imagery of a continuous barrage of often-unarmed Black deaths streaming on social media. A dream came - black kids shimmering in gold, floating over the perils of the world. Exploring the West End of Atlanta as a sci-fi landscape, we dared to LEVITATE.” - Ebony Blanding
Flyer by George F. Baker III
Photos by Justin Chan Photography