GALLERIES

KINTSUGI ANGEL

OCTOBER 2022

I was invited to create a light installation as part of a multi-media presentation of the film Kintsugi Angel during the 2022 Vermont Film Festival.  This short film by the artist Erika Senft Miler and film-maker Lukas Huffman, is a meditation on human resilience and social connection that features two large, mysterious gold figures slowly making their way around a brightly lit automobile salvage yard at night.  The film is beautiful and magical.

For maximum effect, Erika and Lukas decided to present their film festival entry in a basement parking garage where, prior to the screening, there was a performance by the two gold-enveloped dancers who appear in the film.  Access to the garage required walking down three flights of stairs; as a way to build the movie goers’ anticipation for the mystery that was awaiting them, I was asked to make an immersive light installation that would invoke a wondrous, otherworldly environment for the stairwell descent.

The installation consisted of a series of clear acrylic boxes with colorful optical filters glued onto the sides and the tops.  The boxes were placed on rotating bases on all six landings in the three-story stairwell, illuminated with multiple spot lights.  The result was a multitude of dramatic, mesmerizing and constantly evolving vibrant effects up and down the stairs and throughout the space.  Then three hours later, it was all taken down and the stairwell returned to its utilitarian, kind of dingy reality.