M + A INSPIRATION: LIGHT + LIGHTNESS

Over at M + A this month we are celebrating the longer days that come with spring, and the wonder of light in general.  We are so happy to shed the layers and weight of winter, and ease into sun soaked days ahead.

Above images by Uta Barth. Top to bottom: 1) Untitled (98.5)  1998. 2) ...and to draw a bright white line with light (Untitled 11.9)  2011.  3) Abstract Seascape II  2014.

Uta Barth in her own words:

I keep trying to find ways to shift the viewer's attention away from the object they are looking at and toward their own perceptual process in relation to that object.  The question for me always is: how can I make you aware of your own activity of looking instead of losing your attention to thought about what it is that you are looking at?

M + A's Totem Plinth Votive Holder

One beautiful little wonder of alabaster.  Polished smooth on the perimeter.  One side works with tea lights and creates a glow from within, and the opposite side works with tapers.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's Kirven Douthit Boyd performing Caught.  Photo by Rosalie OConnor.  Choreography and Lighting Concept by David Parsons

Originally performed in 1982 by David Parsons himself, this work is a visual masterpiece that brilliantly utilizes a strobe light to capture moments in swift succession that are synced with the height of dynamic leaps.  It's a lighting effect that creates the illusion that the soloist is defying gravity and flying above the stage.  The viewer's experience is not different from watching a silent film in terms of seeing a slight visual staccato between "frames" / moments when the strobe alights.  The soundtrack to this is the compelling "Let the Power Fall" by Robert Fripp.  Click here to see excerpts of the piece performed by David Parsons. 

And finally, a poem that my husband wrote on a Post-It note a full year ago, in something like 5 minutes, when I asked him if he could help me out with some content!  I love this.  It's particularly meaningful to me at this exact moment in time.

Margaret Ahearn, Founder / Creative Director

POEM TO LIGHTNESS

Lightness of step that

makes movement so

elegant, so effortless.

Lightness of spirit, that

makes conversation so

easy, confrontation so hard.

Lightness of mind

that can adapt and

learn from life's changes.

Lightness of heart

that finds joy in being alive.

--Michael Smith