MARY DEFER
(She/Her)
Thursday
April 11th, 7:30 pm
It has been 218 years since the last total solar eclipse in Cleveland, and it will be 420 years until the next one. What was here in 1806? What will be in 2444?
In this series, I explore themes of time and change by creating lumens of Moses Cleaveland trees (living beings that are estimated to have been standing during the last total solar eclipse) and watch faces with astrological elements. The lumens are made by placing negatives of the trees and timepieces atop light-sensitive darkroom paper and exposing to the sun. Unexpectedly vibrant hues emerge despite the use of black & white paper. In their colorful state, however, the lumens are temporary. Fixing them leads to a loss of color. And if an unfixed print is left in the light, it will eventually fade altogether.
Due to these unique characteristics, the series will be different depending on when you visit the gallery. The images on view at the opening will be unchanging reproductions of original lumens. On April 8th, I will create lumens leading up to and immediately following the totality. These pieces will go directly onto the wall, joining the reproductions, but then shifting with the passage of time. In a sense, the unfixed lumens mirror the the eclipse and the way our world is briefly rendered unrecognizable during the totality.
STEVEN MASTROIANNI
(He/Him)
Thursday
April 11th, 7:30 pm
Evocative of watery depths, imaginary heavens, and mysterious maps, these luminous images create an immersive dimension with their own rules of scale and space. Like dreams, these objects seem familiar but weird; imaginary planets and stars, gears moving through space, blueprints for another dimension... This collection imagines the eclipse and how it serves as a dramatic time marker in our own modest histories. Being “camera-less” photographs, they are obviously not real photos of an actual eclipse, but instead my own creations made with practical effects and darkroom trickery which interpret and suggest and illustrate the phenomenon of the eclipse. Like special effects in an old movie, we know it’s fake, but we suspend our disbelief and revel in the imaginary world we see on the screen.
ROBERT WRIGHT
(He/Him)
Saturday
July 29th, 4 pm
My contemporary ‘Ophelias’ don’t drown. They contemplate their survival. She is alternately sad, depressed, hurt, angry, yet finds the will to go on and survive. I didn't design my figures to be sexual, but resolute/vulnerable. I like the contrast between solid figures and the natural elements or water, light, leaf, and stone. Occasionally, the floral patterns in the model's dress contrasts with the natural patterns I find in nature. Ophelia's suicide because of unrequited love is switched to strength in isolation, beauty in silence, and grace amidst nature. I completed over 40 paintings in the “Ophelia” series. I think it is important to reframe ‘Ophelia’ in contemporary terms, and help viewers talk about teenage depression from bad relationships, being manipulated (by contemporary ‘Hamlets’), and negative body images.