Building Text – Solo Exhibition at Broadgate London

I’m excited to be presenting a solo exhibition of text-based artworks consisting of a large-scale installation, works on paper, graphic design, sculptures and other mixed media across three buildings at Broadgate, London.

For ‘Building Text’ I’ve taken the iconic architecture of the Broadgate site as my influence, particularly for the sculptural laser cut Perspex pieces which will be displayed in 201 Bishopsgate. The exhibition is almost entirely new work produced over the last few months, and I must thank Sheffield Hallam University for their generous support in the use of their laser cutters for the development of the Perspex sculptural works, and to AA2A who organised my original residency at Sheffield Hallam earlier in the year. The exhibition opens on Monday 10th September and will be on until 26th October and is part of Broadgate’s Autumn season celebrating the London Design Festival.

Go to the Broadgate site to find out more about the exhibition and opening times.

Light Holds Me Here solo exhibition

 

I exhibited my Arts Council England supported work ‘Light Holds Me Here‘ at Federation House, Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces in Manchester 24th-28th September 2014.

I’d been exploring the themes of desire and void through new writing and presented it in a large-scale installation using light and shadow effects. I developed the work as something akin to a dream world, one which tracks a domestic space but is presented in abstract and sculptural form. I wanted the space to be something the visitor could become a part of, to experience the light and shadows for themselves and to follow the loose narrative I presented.

The windows in the space had been covered with two-way mirror, so you could see out in the day time but at night the work took on a very different quality as the windows turned into mirrors and reflected the whole installation over and over again. The clarity of reflection and the shadow path words reflecting the right way in the mirrored windows gave the effect of many alternative spaces.

I was really pleased with the result of the work as I was never truly going to know how it would look until it was installed in the space, and neither did I know how visitors were going to react to and interact with it. I’m pleased to say that the reaction was positive, I had some interesting conversations during the exhibition and I also had anonymous feedback sheets which contained some wonderful interpretations of the work and most importantly, how it made visitors feel when they walked around it.

Here is a selection of some of the comments of what people enjoyed most:

“The immersive nature of the light against the shadows. I thoroughly enjoyed the inclusion of text as a sculptural object.”

“A feeling of comfort juxtaposed with fear – beautiful shadows. The use of words in reflection. The sense of vertigo induced by reflection.”

“Light Holds Me Here drew me in, felt slightly uncomfortable in anticipation. Amazing effect at night with reflections in the windows.”

“The reflection that felt like I was teleported in different dimensions then projected.”

“How the sound of the words in my head fit snugly into the sensory experience of the space.”

This post contains some of my own photographs of the exhibition, but on my website you can see all the professional photographs of all the work along with the time lapse video showing the change from day to night in the exhibition. 

View more pictures from the exhibition here.

 

Nesta Art Showcase

I was recently accepted to show my “Leap and the Net Will Appear” light art installation at the Nesta Autumn Art Showcase. Here’s a link to a picture and more information. The work is still on show now, so if you’re in London, pop by to have a look!

‘City Suns’ at Experience Needed Exhibition

Elisa Artesero City Suns 1,2 & 3

I exhibited my ‘City Suns 1,2 & 3‘ at Experience Needed exhibition at Piccadilly Place this week.

City Suns 1,2 & 3 are part of an on-going series of work. They represent the colours and patterns of the sun in the city that I observe at different times of the day and year, presented in abstract form.

The physical pieces are abstract works within themselves, but they are also activated into an ephemeral light piece to represent the fleeting and intangible experience of a sunrise or sunset in the city.

The exhibition showcased a number of recent art school graduates predominantly from art schools in the North West and featured live ‘experiences’ each day. Find out more about the exhibition and the other artists involved here.

Meanwhile, here are a few more pictures from the exhibition:

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Experience Needed Exhibition

I am co-curating and also exhibiting in the art school graduates exhibition ‘Experience Needed’ at Piccadilly Place this Friday 22nd November – Thursday 28th November. The preview is this Friday 6-9pm and there will also be a series of live ‘experiences’ in the gallery throughout the week. Find out more at the blog.

Haecceity Project, Paris

I will be exhibiting a piece of light art  as part of the Haecceity Project at Nouvel Organon Gallery, Paris 13th-16th July 2012. I’m really excited to be part of this project, which has already had international press coverage as far as Mexico in newspaper, Excelsior. The exhibition features work from a range of international artists, under the theme of ‘the visual image and literature’. Not only this, but over the weekend there will be live music and drinks, with other activities being planned as I write. So, if you’re in Paris next weekend, please do come along! Go to the Haecceity Project website for more details.

Light Sculpture and Threads Exhibition

I recently exhibited my Light Paintings and a Light Sculpture at the ‘Threads’ exhibition with Roger Bygott and Hannah Leighton-Boyce at the Link Gallery.

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I used electrical tape to frame my Light Painting projections, this was necessary to create a defined area for these works as they work with light and shade, so the shaded parts would have been lost without the frame.

I made my sculpture in response to the unusual shape of the gallery. I used white thread to reshape the space in a mix of sharp angular shapes, some covered with paper as platforms for the bright slowly moving projections to bring the sculpture to life. The light from the projections catches on the strings, illuminating them and giving a sense of movement. The shadows cast from the sculpture also moves across the back wall as the light and dark areas of the projection slowly shift across the space.

Here is an extract from the installation view of my Light Sculpture: