Light Hoods
Installation, 2015 — Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany, NY (LIT)
Installation, 2015 — Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany, NY (LIT)
Light Hoods Construct a landscape/niegborhood of light boxes, which allows the viewer to peak and discover the internal projection source.
Walking past a block of row houses at night, one might glimpse the shadowy silhouettes of life within. Light Hoods invites a similar kind of voyeuristic curiosity through translucent windows that reveal the movement of mysterious forms. Unlike real houses, we are able to peer through the roof-like openings of these structures to discover what’s really happening inside. It’s surprising to learn that the complex shifting patterns are projections made by light hitting bits of ordinary material that sit atop a reflective, turning surface. These arrangements and the ethereal shadow-drawings they produce leave the notion of ‘seeing is believing’ in a state of delighted upheaval.
Designed by Yael Erel with light projections developed in collaboration with Avner Ben-Natan, Light Hoods was featured in the exhibitions LIT, Light Topographies, and Troy Glow Exhibition. The project was commissioned by the Albany International Airport Gallery and curated by Sharon Bates. Research assistance came from RPI Architecture students Elizabeth Lee and Erin Butler.
Publications include Rensselaer Alumni Magazine, The Albany Times Union, Metroland, and GET VISUAL.
Dimensions: 59″ × 21″ × 37″
Installation by: Yael Erel
Curators: Sharon Bates
Light and Installation Support: Avner BenNatan
RPI Research Stidents : Elizabeth Lee and Erin Butler
Photography: Yael Erel, Avner Ben Natan
Funding: This project was presented at the Albany International Airport Gallery, as part of a group exhibition exploring light and shadow in contemporary art.
Photography and videography by Yael Erel and Avner BenNatan.
featured in
Like entering a spatial microscope, micro topographies are revealed through a simple act of reflection.
This immersive exhibition is grounded in direct physical phenomena, challenging the limits of our perception. Although we understand that a surface contains micro-scale events we cannot easily detect with the naked eye, when they are transcribed through reflection they seem otherworldly and alive.
The exhibition uses light as a projectional drawing device at the scale of architecture. The light drawings are a system composed of a light source, reflector and the surface on which the drawings register, inextricably linking the drawing to its projection. Light and sound here interact similarly to how they would at the oceanside; their correlation too complex to follow but is readily perceived, addressing the multi-modal nature of human perception.
Light and sound are intertwined, drawing visitors into the wonder and complexity inherent in the seemingly simple patterns being transcribed.