Commissioned for Lit Exhibition, 2015 — Albany International Airport Gallery, Albany
Moon Record is a light and sound installation by Yael Erel and Avner Ben-Natan that transforms reflections into an ode to the haunting beauty of the moon.
A source of story and song for as long as we’ve been looking at the sky, the moon is also the earth’s reflector of the sun. Moon Record draws upon the ancient human romance with our celestial neighbor as a metaphor for the relationship of light to the surfaces it touches. Here light radiates from within the silvery throat of a gramophone onto a slowly turning disc whose face is mapped with the pits and crevasses of the moon. As it shines on the ‘record,’ the light is projected to the wall, translating those craters into spectral shapes and melodies.
The experience is accompanied by a manipulated recording of Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River, augmented by Yael Erel and Avner Ben-Natan into a drifting, dreamlike soundscape. The work continues Erel’s exploration of microscopic surface variations as a medium for light drawing, using reflection as a language for memory and reverie.
Moon Record was featured in the exhibitions LIT at the Albany International Airport Gallery and Light Topographies at Cornell AAP’s John Hartell Gallery.On perminant display at Troy Music Academy. The project was supported by the Albany International Airport Gallery and curated by Sharon Bates, with research assistance from RPI Architecture students Emily Broadbent and Erin Butler.
This installation was featured in Rensselaer Alumni Magazine, The Albany Times Union, Metroland, and GET VISUAL.
Dimensions: 6’ × 8’ × 8’
Photography and videography by Yael Erel and Avner BenNatan.
featured in
LIT - 2015
The following description is taken from the Albany International Airport Gallery webpage which can be found here.
The abundance of darkness or light is easily adjusted during the course of a modern American’s typical day. With its presence just a click away from its absence, light becomes more of a utility than a phenomenon. Among artists, though, the many variations and qualities of light are closely observed and considered, served up as mood and metaphor.
For the six artists featured here, light is a pivotal component in their work. It is used to create illusions, and mark the passage of time. It imbues landscapes and objects with character, and reveals events both sublime and fleeting. Through art, we are reminded that light is remarkable, whether its source is an LED or the moon, the glow of fire or paint on a brush. Through art, we are compelled to see the world as lit.
Light Topographies - 2017
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.