The long east wall in the Ice Box at the Crane Arts Center has so much wall space–25 x 100 feet–that founders Nick Kripal and Richard Hricko decided to make something even bigger of it– In a push to challenge video artists to take advantage of the enormous space, they have installed four computer-controlled video projectors capable of filling that wall, including creating a seamless image (a la Matt Suib and Nadia Hironaka’s The Soft Epic or: Savages of the Pacific West video installation there). It’s hello Cinemascope times two.
The long-range plan is to have October be video month at the Crane, and to entertain proposals from artists and curators around the world to use the 125,000 cubic fee of space in the Ice Box and use the new video and sound system.
“We always thought of that space as a kind of place where people could expand their studio or curatorial practice because they have the opportunity [to use such a large expanse],” said Kripal in a recent telephone conversation. He and Hricko named the projector project I.C.E., or the International Curatorial Exchange.
The inaugural run of the system for an art project, which people can program to run in numerous ways, is up right now, and has just been extended an extra week to run until Nov. 29.
The site-specific video installation, 40,000 feet, by Netherlands artist Su Tomesen, projects floating clouds and ocean filmed from airplanes around the world. The installation also includes smoke (ah-choo) and light and sound. It’s a sort of landscape that is at once familiar and unfamiliar. Philadelphia artist Candy DePew, recently on a residency in the Netherlands, saw Tomesen’s work there–a similar piece designed for a very different space, a restaurant–and suggested the piece for ICE.
This is not the only upgrade at the Crane worth noting. Until tomorrow, another video exhibit is screening at the Crane–in its brand new video projection area–a vast improvement from the curtained black box in the Gray Area.
Video Zoom, showing in this country for the first time ever, is an annual project started by Mary Angela Schroth of Gallery Sala 1 in Rome in 2003. Schroth invites a curator from a different country each year to assemble a survey of that country’s video scene. Videos from seven countries, about 40 minutes to an hour for each country, are being screened. Schroth will speak tomorrow (Sunday, the 22nd at 5 p.m.)
Kripal said he’s doesn’t know if the video month concept will be in place for October 2010, but he’s looking further into the future. “It is our intent to do an annual project,” he said.
Su Tomesen’s 40,000 feet is up to Nov. 29, by appointment only.
Video Zoom is up until tomorrow. Mary Angela Schroth lecture tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 22, 5 p.m.
