Blink Gallery Hosts "Ripe" Installation

When you first step inside the dark folds of the felt tent that encloses the Ripe installation at Blink Art Gallery, it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the dimly lit atmosphere.  Then suddenly you find yourself surrounded by hundreds of "thought bubbles" hanging in strands and clusters from the tiered, swooping ceiling of the navy tent.  These bubbles are created from pages that have been torn from various books, folded origami-style and dipped into beeswax.

As you make you way through the display, your shoulders brush against them and you feel the smoothness of their wax coating and hear the sound as they delicately tap against one another.  As you come to rest in the center of the tent, you find yourself looking upward at the ceiling through the tiny holes through which a soft light shines.  In the corners on the floor lay clusters of the bubbles that glow with a warm yellow light that reflects onto the shiny hardwood floor.  Ultimately, it reminds you of being at rest beneath a starry sky and feelings of peacefulness and security wash over you.

This installation, created by Tara Sasiadek and Marissa Lehner, opened last Friday, October 29 and will be closing November 3 after 7 p.m.  The display is comprised of recycled felt, string, lights and the waxed origami book pages.  The artists were inspired by some lanterns that they saw one evening at dinner and wanted to create a full sensory experience for their viewers.

"I have always wanted to create sacred space through artwork--to offer the viewer an experience to participate in, rather than something to look at," said Sasiadek.  "To me, a place is made sacred by the way it is experienced. It was amazing to see what essentially started out as a large pile of wax, paper and felt become an enclosure where people explored touch, sound, sight, and scent."

"This is the type of work I want to have here," said Blink Gallery owner Marcus Wise.  He feels that the space available at the gallery is ideal for this sort of avant-garde installation and others like it.

The artists developed the idea of taking the pages from old books to create the folded paper bubbles, which resemble bunches of ripening fruit.  They hoped that the exhibit would bring a new meaning to the books from which the bubbles were born. "The raw materials have changed, but the process is the same, a seed becomes a vine becomes a web," reads Sasiadek and Lehner's artist statement.  "Knowledge connects like little fruits, like stars dripping from the sky."

Lehner, who also works as an art teacher at Clarence Middle and High Schools, wanted to integrate the "thirst for knowledge" into the installation.  Rather than simply use origami paper, she chose to recycle the pages of books into her art with the hope that the text would take viewers to a different place.  "I felt like I needed to give them a new purpose, a new life," said Lehner.  "We're moving so fast, in twenty years everyone will have a Kindle and no one picks up a book anymore."

When they began working on folding the thought bubbles in early September, the project brought the artists together with friends and students over a stack of old books.  They spent the time together discussing the books as they gradually transformed them into art. "It was a really cool way to share the art-making experience with other people," she said.

What makes this installation unique is its accessibility to viewers of all levels of art exposure.  The concepts behind it are very simple and the full sensory experience allows any audience member to immerse themselves in the artists' ideas.  "It's the kind of feeling you get when you're in a place that's very beautiful," Lehner said.  The glowing thought lanterns and the dark felt enclosure offers the same nostalgia that one feels when looking at the stars.  This experience, one of peacefulness and meditation, is one that people of all ages and backgrounds can identify with.

To learn more about the exhibit and Blink Gallery, visit www.mindweb.us.