2026, LEDs, Arduino, Audio
With music by Rhys Chatham.
Join us for a hot cider reception to celebrate this fantastic installation on Saturday, January 10th from 5-6pm.
Inspired by the Goldberg Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach and the principle of conjugations of verbs and, by extension, thoughts and ideas. Referring to Shirley’s past work of site-specific LED installations, here she offers a new variation on her themes.
Shirley’s toolkit includes ephemeral installations, technology, and traditional materials, and here, while showing all the “works,” the parts of the piece, she creates an ephemeral gestural installation with LED light and Arduinos as her medium. The sound by Rhys Chatham, Crimson Grail, recorded in Sacré-Cœur in 2005 in Paris, directs the senses toward the elevated spaces of cathedrals and harmonics, which layer the experience, reaching subtle zones of perception in the vicinity of intuition and the subconscious, and pointing towards the sublime. Drawn from art history traditions of Light and Space, Minimalism, Pop Art, and Abstract Expressionism, while bringing these into a present-tense technology and language base, the work illuminates the center of Narrowsburg as a statement toward hope and renewal.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Raphaele Shirley is a French-American multimedia artist. She lives and works in New York City and Callicoon, New York. She studied fine arts at the Beaux-Arts of Aix-en-Provence, France, and then moved to New York City in 1993.
Her practice ranges from videography, photography, and sculpture to immersive audiovisual and light installations, public art, social interventions, collaborative works, and performance.
