Astro-Turf USA. is a variable sized, mixed media, installation with video projection, kinetic hand-cut plexi-glass mirror, sound and scent.  This single source multi-sensory installation consists of a fast-cut (4 pictures per second} video projection of immigrant photos, both historical and contemporary edited to Chubby Checker's "Twist" and "Let's Twist Again" respectively.  Fifty hand-cut and painted plexi-glass mirrored US states suspended from the ceiling are projected upon resulting in fast-moving reflections and shadow play on floor, ceiling and walls.  In a addition to an original scent built from the spice blends of 5 international cuisines, we hang a 10' x 6' US map made of individually hand-cut Astro-Turf States (made of recycled bottles) sewn together with cotton string and a sculptural display of ethnically diverse local menus.

The challenge of balancing our creative, financial and social lives is extremely difficult. Considering the obstacles and distractions from the media and the allure of the consumable we
seek material rewards for our hard work.  
Forever jumping in “The Pursuit of Perfection” (Lexus car ad slogan)

Where the Ocean Meets the Shore transforms the art gallery at RoCA into an interactive seascape by using projections, sounds and scents as well as a variety of materials and architectural structures.           Here the viewer experiences the solitary beauty of a desolate shore, both by immersing oneself in the overall show and by encountering individual installations such as, THE BOARDWALK, the pounding surf of HURRICANE, and a piece entitled REAR WINDOW that evokes looking out on the bayshore on a rainy day.

Lynn Stein, Artistic Director of RoCA, describing the exhibit, said, "The water’s edge forms a transparent, mutable boundary that shifts from moment to moment as it frames and encompasses all the landmasses       on our planet. Here one can feel the enormity and simplicity of nature and the individual role we play.” 

“Ocean State of Mind” is a multi-sensory installation, an abstraction of the ocean that uses, sight, sound and scent to create an environment where viewers have an individual experience, and much like the ocean itself, discover a personal connection with it.  The installation includes video projections, mirrored forms and sculpture, scent and sound.   Reflecting waves are projected over mirrored sculptures depicting forms we find at the sea; nautilus shells, breaking waves and water patterns. Creating a space that is filled with reflected light and shadow play.”

3 channel video projection. mirror, fabric, wood, paint, sound and scent, 
12 x 20' x 25' 2009

An Invitational Exhibition Celebrating the 75th Anniversary
of The Garnerville Holding Company

Garnerville, NY - The Garnerville Arts and Industrial Center, a pre-civil war mill complex with a rich and vibrant history, is holding an exhibition to celebrate the place and the people who find inspiration in the myriad aspects of this special and unique site.

In the spirit of connecting to the people who worked at the Garnerville Holding Company, 
we used found objects, found films and antique perfume recipes to evoke their presence though the senses. This installation was built around a 19th century 14' wooden hand warp, a type of thread bank, which worked in conjunction with a hand operated werp loom.

When we decided to project the film footge called “Exiting the Factory”1895 by George Lumiere, the first film ever shot, and footage by Edison of iron workers (1898), we were excited to have moving images of people who worked in similar places like Garnerville and wondered about how to convey their essence. Moved by the women in the Lumiere film we created a scent they might have worn based on a period handkerchief perfume recipe and diffused it in the room.

Being that calico fabric was a prominent product of the early print and dye works, we created our own ”calico pattern” represented by patterns of the botanical elements that made up our diffusing scent with painted stencils and cut and assembled Plexiglass mirrors. We hung the cut mirrors in repeating patterns inside and out of the hand warp and projected processed videos of the stream from Garnerville that reflected its moving image throughout the space. Video projections were virutally 360 degrees due to overlapping projections, reflections and shadow play on, through and bounced-off of the wooden hand warp. 

The sound, reflected light and scent created a real time experience, while evoking
the spirit of the past.

Ginger Andro and Chuck Glicksman have wrestled with in creating their multi-media presentation The Crossing, one of the most interesting works of this type I have seen in perhaps ten years and one of the few that can appeal across a wide age range and        to both the knowledgeable and the non-initiate. The piece has the startling originality, employing a simple conceit executed with the consummate skill, that marked, for instance, the first pieces of Amy Jenkins at the Anna Kustera Gallery when it was in Soho years ago. And it has none of the self-congratulation that seems to infect almost everything that young video artists seem to think is necessary to make a career, if not a point.  Andro studied with Alan Siegel and Vito Kasuba, while Glicksman was a student of the filmmaker Ken Jacobs, known for the rigor and humor of his structuralist films. This training is evident in the          collaborative work Andro and Glicksman have been making. In a number they have included not only video and sound, but also scents, something that only Ernesto Neto has been successful with recently. For The Crossing, a pièce d'occasion designed to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge, they nearly fill a gallery with cords and other sculptural elements that simulate the feeling a the guy-wires and supports that are a central feature of the bridge, this reflected in mirrors placed in such a way that the visual perception is expanded almost infinitely. Utilizing four projectors, they shine footage both original and archival into the space, through which viewers may walk, surrounded by      an odor redolent of the city's waterfront and the wafting sounds of the metropolis--or the delighted murmurs of visitors. The centerpiece of the projection is film footage,          colorized and carefully spliced and repeated, of an 1899 film by Thomas Edison,            New Brooklyn to New York via the Brooklyn Bridge, depicting a magical crossing of      this most iconic of structures. Immersed in its magic, participants in The Crossingare transported to that realm of imagination that the bridge itself has long inspired.

Larry Qualls, columnist, ART ON PAPER

From the exhibition "Bitter Sweet"

installation: video projection, mirror, sound and scent
8' x 8' x 6'' 2007

Oriental Bittersweet Celastrus orbiculatus is an invasive plant found along the banks of Poughkeepsie’s Casperkill Creek. As an invasive, Oriental Bittersweet is one of the many indicators that define and identify problems-solutions of the local and global environment. In conjunction with Vassar’s Environmental Studies Program, we are working with biologists, geographers, botanists, archeologists, geologists, political scientists, fellows, students and community spokespeople to identify their concerns about the Casperkill. We are using these issues and elements as art material, representing their characteristics in an multifaceted installation that includes video projection, reflection, scent and sound, not only to explore connections to and metaphors of globalization but also to offer the visitor a bitter-sweet view of this micro-macro reality.