Shadow Play NYC – March 3 to 28 at Revelation Gallery

Shadow Play Exhibition Opening, Reception, and Music Performance

Karen Rempel in partnership with Saint John’s in the Village invites you to attend a wine and cheese reception, art opening, and musical performance.

Logistics

  • Revelation Gallery
  • Tuesday, March 3, 7 PM to 9 PM
  • 224 Waverly Place (Between W. 11th St & 7th Avenue)
  • 212-243-6192
  • Free, but registration required at Eventbrite

The music consists of 14 one-minute original compositions inspired by the Shadow Play artwork series. The music performance will begin at 8 PM.

About the Artwork

Shadow Play is a series of 14 miniatures exploring the connections between shadow, familiar forms, color, and emotion. The series was first exhibited at the Havana Art Gallery in Vancouver, BC. The second phase of the art project took stillness into motion, adding a multiplicity of personal responses to the art, and resulted in this video. The third phase of the project brings the music dimension of 14 original compositions in response to the art. The fourth phase of the project is you!

Consent to Be Photographed

The event will be photographed and filmed. By attending you grant permission for your photograph to be used in the fourth iteration of the art project.

Further Contemplation

What is the difference between substance and its shape? Is it an absence of light, a reflection of light? The shadow seems to reveal new potentials for the object. New possibilities, alternate realities. A hint of magic, hidden within the ordinary.

The Heart Sutra in Buddhism includes the statement “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” A shadow is empty, yet it has form. Perhaps a single shadow is a doorway into understanding deep universal truths.

Yet the creation of this series was a playful act, form arising spontaneously from emptiness, yet never really existing. From light and shadow waves to eye, electrons, neural circuits, to pixels and bytes to dots of ink on paper, the final result is a tiny form, reflecting the inconsequential temporariness and changing insubstantiality of a shadow on a living-room wall.

Exhibition Dates

The artwork will be on display in the Revelation Gallery from March 3 to 28. Gallery hours are:

  • Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 10 AM to 3 PM

About the Performers

An exciting lineup of talented musicians will be performing original compositions and improvisations in response to each piece of art. Each performance will be one minute long.

 

Style on the Street: West Village in Springtime

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been writing fashion pieces for the WestView News. With spring hovering near, the West Village is starting to take on a greenish hue. Tiny leaves are budding on the trees in sunny gardens. Birdsong is in the air, calling us to spring forward out of our beds at an earlier hour. A sprinkling of fairy dust was also in the air on St. Patrick’s day, as West Village residents and visitors alike took to the streets sporting green to celebrate our favorite Irish holiday.

Paul MacKnight's St. Pat's Stache
Paul MacKnight’s St. Pat’s ’stache

It’s an eerie coincidence that Paul MacKnight works at both Barre3 and Bar Six, both in the West Village. (And frequents Hell’s Kitchen’s Bar Nine, the dueling piano bar?) He poured a wicked Irish coffee on Sunday, serving it up to St. Patrick’s Day patrons during his shift behind the bar. In honor of the day, he put on some gold and green sparkle, making him the pixiest bartender in town.

Sana Siddiqui strolling down Sixth Avenue
Sana Siddiqui strolling down Sixth Avenue with Jefferson Market Library in background

Meanwhile, Sana Siddiqui strolled with her family down Sixth Avenue, and this couple power-walked in green splendor down a Gold Coast side street.

Strolling in sync on St. Pat's
Strolling in sync on St. Pat’s

Christmas Eve in the West Village

My street at Christmas

on the hudson river, people take selfies and groupies against the fading bright layers of sunset

a muscled black man in combat gray t-shirt, jeans, leather boots, and earbuds sits down on a bench facing the river, singing in falsetto

I do a double-take as I run by

a french-speaking family of 7 or 8 spans the entire walkway

I pause a beat for a gap and slip through

a police boat flashes blue and red lights on the jersey shore

down river, lady liberty shines pale green across the water

I do an extra leg along the river, strong and free

I can run forever and don’t want to ever stop

but friends and dinner at EN japanese are on the menu, so I cross west street at eleventh when the white walker beckons

a young man in a black suit, white shirt, sits on a stool at the corner of perry and bleecker, playing mournful cello

he smiles when I run by

four twenty-somethings dressed holiday festive fill the sidewalk, one of the women carrying pink lilies, on their way to a dinner party

I swerve into the street to pass

I bet a lot of people live in sixth floor walk-ups

don’t you think some people own the top two floors?

no way!

on the next corner, a giant black SUV idles at the curb

a diminutive black man holds open the door for a very large black man

I wonder if he’s a famous rapper

I smile at the driver in complicity about the glory of being near this man

he doesn’t get it

at seventh ave and greenwich the light is with me but sirens are coming my way, a block uptown

I dash across flying on endorphins and more glory

jayrunning across greenwich, two guys on bikes run the light at charles and I slow and change my angle to let them pass in front of me

we rule the night

kids

coins jingling in his paper cup, the grizzled black man who sits on an over-turned bucket next to the magazine stand at sixth avenue and west ninth street sings

and heaven and nature sing

and heaven and nature sing

and hea-ven and he-e-ven and nature sing

the sirens rise