Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder
(New York) Artist Website Artists-in-Residence July Residency Year: 2022Biography
July is one of the hottest and brightest months, but at Surel’s Place it’s going to get dark – real dark. Our next artist-in-residency is a co-residency with New York based artists Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder, continuing a 20 year collaboration as Gibson + Recoder. They will transform the gallery at Surel’s Place into a large-scale camera obscura.
The camera obscura is latin for “dark chamber” and is a centuries-old technique consisting of a darkened space with a small opening admitting natural light that projects a living image of the immediate surroundings. Gibson + Recoder will respond to the surrounding environment at Surel’s Place to continue their investigations into this enchanted art.
Gibson + Recoder’s camera obscura installations reimagine the technique as a proto-cinematic form, which in turn entails a radical rethinking of the nature of cinema as a simultaneously ancient and modern art.
Their works are in the permanent collections of major art museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, and Museum Kunstpalast in Dusseldorf, Germany. Artist awards and commissions include the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy, National Endowment for the Art’s U.S. – Japan Creative Artists Fellowship, and Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Mad. Sq. Art in New York.
WORKSHOP
DISCLOSING THE OBSCURE: THE LOST CINEMATIC ART OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA
Saturday, July 23rd | 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Our community will have a chance to learn how to build various camera obscura prototypes themselves, ranging from the most basic to more inventive possibilities. “Disclosing the Obscure: The Lost Cinematic Art of the Camera Obscura” will take place on Saturday, July 23rd, and is open to all levels of experience ages 16 and up.
INSTALLATION & ART TALK
PERFORATED LIGHT
Friday, August 5th | 5:30pm – 8:30pm
Saturday, August 6th | 11:00am – 2:00pm | Art Talk at 2:00pm
By sculpting the natural light entering the perforated spaces of this installation, Gibson + Recoder produce images that are by turns abstract and concrete, minimal and immersive, obscure and distinct.
During their art talk on Saturday at 2pm, they will discuss and share examples of their creations together including installations at Madison Square Park in Manhattan and the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
Gallery
