Blue Lantern, Individual Artists of Oklahoma Gallery, Oklahoma City, January 4-February 5, 2011
The Blue Lantern Project is a response to a future catastrophic event. The artists involved in the project include James and Yiren Gallagher, Jeff Hogue, Lee Roy Chapman, Darren Dirksen, Linda Wilson, Matt Phipps, Sam Fredrickson from Oklahoma, and Amelie Junqua of France and Richard Baxter of Australia as well. The artists have created an environment that reconnects the importance of oral and written histories toward always incomplete understanding of the natural world. The project is to be viewed as taking a conceptual journey from one person's hand and placing it into the currents of the unknown: a place of flood, death, mystery, and life.
This one-month installation includes James, Lee Roy, and Darren building a wooden boat. During ten days of construction, the artists lived and worked inside the gallery space. Alongside the ship, a lantern is assembled as a dwelling for the builders. I joined the crew for three nights only to newly discover my physical limitations. However, transforming a Mandela structure created for death to sleeping quarters for the living sets the destination for this traveling device. I want to think I am doing modest art and living in my texts. The installation coexisted with the blizzard of 2011 that swiped the country.
This one-month installation includes James, Lee Roy, and Darren building a wooden boat. During ten days of construction, the artists lived and worked inside the gallery space. Alongside the ship, a lantern is assembled as a dwelling for the builders. I joined the crew for three nights only to newly discover my physical limitations. However, transforming a Mandela structure created for death to sleeping quarters for the living sets the destination for this traveling device. I want to think I am doing modest art and living in my texts. The installation coexisted with the blizzard of 2011 that swiped the country.
The white cubical structure is a small living space and is part of a collaborative installation entitled “The Blue Lantern” at the IAO space.
