July 14, 2015

Chain Link Fencing as Art by Soo Sunny Park

Soo Sunny Park’'s installation Unwoven Light animates Rice Gallery’'s expansive space, transforming it into a shimmering world of light, shadow, and brilliant color. Suspended from the walls and ceiling, thirty-seven individually sculpted units are arranged as a graceful, twisting flow of abstract form. Entering the gallery there is no set path to follow. Instead, we are invited to meander slowly as one might stroll along a river’s edge, stopping to admire the glints of light that dance on the water’s surface.

Unwoven Light continues Park’'s ongoing experimentation with the ephemeral qualities of light and how light affects our perceptions of architectural space. She began thinking about her installation by making a site visit to the gallery in July 2012, to experience the built and the natural elements of the space: its proportions and surfaces, and in particular its lighting conditions. Though immaterial, light is a critical structural element in each of Park'’s works. Here she has utilized both the gallery’s lighting and the natural light that enters through the front glass wall. Park notes, “We don’t notice light when looking so much as we notice the things light allows us to see. Unwoven Light captures light and causes it to reveal itself, through colorful reflections and refractions on the installation’s surfaces and on the gallery floor and walls.”

Chain Link Fencing as Art by Soo Sunny Park 1

Chain Link Fencing as Art by Soo Sunny Park 2

Chain Link Fencing as Art by Soo Sunny Park 3

Chain Link Fencing as Art by Soo Sunny Park 4

Chain Link Fencing as Art by Soo Sunny Park 5

July 11, 2015

Artist Paints “Bodyscapes” That Glow Under Black Light

“I’ve always been fascinated by black lights, the beauty of the human body, the world around me and the ability to create and express myself through art,” John Poppleton, the artist, said. “All of these ingredients I unexpectedly found creating what I call ‘Bodyscapes’”. He makes his artwork in a darkened studio – he paints with UV body paint under the illumination of the black light. From the artist’s perspective it becomes a very surreal even spiritual experience.

Artist Paints “Bodyscapes” That Glow Under Black Light 1

Artist Paints “Bodyscapes” That Glow Under Black Light 2

Artist Paints “Bodyscapes” That Glow Under Black Light 3

Artist Paints “Bodyscapes” That Glow Under Black Light 4

Artist Paints “Bodyscapes” That Glow Under Black Light 5


July 10, 2015

Woven Installation by Studio 400

A team of twenty students from a fifth-year architectural design studio at california polytechnic state university, san luis obispo, developed the large-scale, interactive sculpture to showcase each student’s research book. The piece integrates both the introduction of the students’ investigative publications and their collective installation by creating a previously unseen environment.

‘white’ is an actualized representation of the relationship between environment, user, material and space. The 4,500 square foot space has been transformed by a climbable sculpture constructed from 80,000 square feet of plastic sheeting arranged in cylindrical and tapered weaves. The material was first sliced, then loomed, woven, stapled, taped and tied by the collective in order to create a supportive surface in which gallery goers could rest and examine their architectural studies.

The rolling white installation has been constructed in such a way that it may accommodate the weight of many gallery goers, the twenty students aspired to create a sculptural work which would function as a climbable surface which could divide the space.

Studio 400 decided upon plastic to develop the work due to its flexibility, strength, cost efficiency and ability to be reused or modified following its role in the ‘white’ installation.

Woven Installation by Studio 400

Woven Installation by Studio 400

Woven Installation by Studio 400

Woven Installation by Studio 400

Woven Installation by Studio 400


The short film ‘white: studio 400 book show installation’ by pablo sandoval showcases the construction of the dynamic sculpture.