INLIGHT 2012

On November 2, 2012, 1708 Gallery's 5th annual InLight Richmond illuminated the facades, storefront windows, parking lots and alleyways of Richmond's downtown Arts & Culture District with light-based art and performances.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

The InLight Richmond 2012 exhibition selected by juror Melissa Ho, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden featured works by the following artists and artist collectives: Cliff Baldwin, Christie Blizard, Elaine Buckholtz, Johanna Evans-Colley, Tannaz Farsi, Rebecca Ferrell, Charlie Glenn, Norberto Gomez, Nathan Gorgen, Lisa Hein and Robert Seng, Nicole Herbert, Devon Johnson, Nelly Kate, Dave Watkins, Brian McLean, Rebecca Najdowski, Vesna Pavlovic, Jason Peters, Kate Louise Peterson, Phillip Stearns, Sasha Waters Freyer, Jacqueline Weaver, and Timothy McMurray.

JUROR’S STATEMENT

Since 2008, InLight Richmond has moved through the city, illuminating and enlivening a different neighborhood each year. For its fifth iteration, this one-night exhibition of light-based art returns to the home district of 1708 Gallery, transforming downtown Broad Street into an extended urban Kunsthalle. On November 2, 2012, visitors to the area's storefronts, alleyways, and vacant lots will discover works by twenty-one artists and artist groups that feature light as material and subject.

Light is perhaps the ideal medium for art that occupies public space and aspires to engage a wide audience. Intangible and radiant, light activates its surroundings, breaking down the division between art object and viewer. Accordingly, many of the works in InLight Richmond encourage social interaction, incorporating the spontaneous participation of the audience. Others combine light with sound—an element which, like light, radiates through space, beckoning and engaging the spectator. A number of works in InLight Richmond address specific sites along Broad Street, using means that range from specialized projection systems to everyday materials such as tape, plastic buckets, and Christmas lights. Film and photography—media dependent on the action of light—form another focus of the exhibition. Several of these works explore the psychological or emotional associations of light, suggesting the photographic image as a metaphor for human memory.

1708 Gallery established InLight Richmond five years ago as an offering to the city, an extraordinary opportunity for the public to experience contemporary art outside of gallery walls. This edition, I hope, fulfills that promise, acting to stimulate the senses and expand our perceptions.

- Melissa Ho

2012 AWARD WINNERS

The Best in Show award, selected by juror Melissa Ho, was given to Devon Johnson for his digitally converted 8mm film, Noms de Pays.

The Best in Green award, also selected by juror Melissa Ho, was given to Jason Peters for his installation, Meandering Dynamics.

The People's Choice Award, selected by the audience was given to Nelly Kate and Dave Watkins' for their interactive audio visual installation and performance, Interstitial Transduction.