Cherry blossoms return to Artechouse

A slow walk through Artechouse's cherry blossom trail takes visitors to a dream world, apart from harsh realities of outside space/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Theme on Matisse's Dance/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Japanese ocean consumes the huge screen with music to expand the sensations/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Children of all ages find wonder at Artechouse/Photo by Patricia Leslie

If you missed spring's cherry blossoms or want to see them again, trip on over to Artechouse, a great escape a few steps from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and not far from the Wharf in southwest D.C.   


At this hi-tech light and sound show, manmade flowers hang and surround a cherry blossom lane in a whim of fantasy only on view two days before coronavirus shut it down early in March.

But, the blossoms are back to help restore some sense of "normalcy" (we hope) to the nation's capital amidst disease outbreak.

He changes cherry blossoms with a wave of arms at Artechouse/Photo by Patricia Leslie

He's going to skip his way down to Cherry Blossom Lane at Artechouse/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 This  world is mine!/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Artechouse is a make-believe, interactive world ("way down below") of lights, music, and art which invites guests to "let loose" and hang out your mojo, have a good time and forget about what's outside..

Not that Artechouse has forgotten coronavirus and what's happening. Social distancing practice and masks are required here with plenty of hand sanitizers stationed throughout the galleries which the staff constantly cleans in an unobtrusive way.

Artechouse's Hanami invites guests to drift, roam, escape/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Soaring on pink clouds!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Another gallery at Artechouse features Ms. Shimizu's lights and mirrors /Photo by Patricia Leslie

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A fun house at the fair!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Arms are the wind to direct cherry blossoms at Artechouse/Photo by Patricia Leslie

I want to leap and touch them!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A gallery of lanterns light up if someone will touch the taiko drums/Photo by Patricia Leslie

With a light touch on the drum, he summons "kami" to replace bad spirits with good spirits /Photo by Patricia Leslie

Without a drummer, the lights go out and it's time to exit Artechouse's last gallery/Photo by Patricia Leslie






This is 3-D space where no one needs to don special glasses since waving limbs and open minds command  floating images which respond to human movements and more. (You may stick arms and legs out, hokey pokey style, if anyone in this mostly 30-somethings age group knows what that is.)
 
The exhibit is called Hanami: Beyond the Blooms created by New York Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu   
who juxtaposes science, technology, and art in her show. 

Hanami to Japanese is the week-long flowering and enjoyment of the short-lived beauty of nature's world. Japan's annual celebration of this springtime splendor has been celebrated for centuries with feast, festivals and big parties. 

The designers have digitized Ms. Shimizu's ink drawings to replicate them on huge floor-to-ceiling screens. Lidar technology interacts with visitor movements to swirl and answer with creations which follow human direction. Guests create and participate in their own fantastical worlds, wherever minds may soar.

Artechouse has four galleries for the exhibition with one devoted to taiko drums, a Japanese tradition which calls forth kami "the divine beings that ward away evil spirits," (several doses are helpful) that when touched, light up. (Kind of like people.) 

Ms. Shimizu, the author of several books whose works are found in collections around the world, teaches at New York's School of Visual Arts and was chosen by Newsweek Japan to its list of "100 Japanese People the World Respects."

According to Sandro Kereselidze, co-founder and chief creative officer of Artechouse: "Art, we feel, is truly essential right now. It can provide a respite from the chaos that surrounds us, inspire us, transport us. We hope Hanami can help our audiences experience joy and inspiration as we enter this new phase of reopening."

Many nations celebrate hanami, including Finland, Italy, the Phillipines, China, Taiwan, and Korea, and American cities like, besides Washington, Macon, Georgia, Newark, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York which host cherry blossom festivals, too.

What: Hanami: Beyond the Blooms

When:  Now through Sept. 7, 2020. Monday - Thursday, 12 - 8 p.m. (with last session at 7 p.m.) Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.- 10 p.m. (last session at 9 p.m.)

Where: Artechouse, 1238 Maryland Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20024, between the Smithsonian and L'Enfant Plaza Metro stations; a few steps from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Admission: Adults, $19(online), $24 (onsite); students, seniors, and military, $15/$20; children, $12/$17; families (two parents, two children), $45. Reserve at artechouse.com.

Smithsonian Metro station: Exit 12th and Independence Avenue; walk 10 minutes (.3 mile).

For more information:  No telephone number found. Email: tickets@artechouse.com.


patricialesli@gmail.com

Give your pulse, your heartbeat and fingerprints for a Hirshhorn show

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967), Pulse Room, 2006, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2018/Photo by Patricia Leslie

An exhibition in Washington will leave its perfect home here tomorrow.  

Pulse by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has been up at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden since last fall, during which time it has collected thousands of heartbeats, pulses, and fingerprints from visitors who have stopped to wonder and add their own identities to produce the display.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967), Pulse Index, 2010, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2018/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Some of the latest technologies in yet another interactive art show (isn't that what most contemporary shows are these days?) are combined with voluntary contributions with results to be seen pronto. 

Water, lights, human movement, sensors, touch, and vital signs mix in huge galleries to show a little bit of just who you are in the grand population, physiologically speaking. (Not that you can pick out your own pieces in the show since they all look and sound alike!)

Three Pulse installations fill the museum's second floor, the first, Pulse Index records fingerprints and heart rates when visitors insert their fingers in a sensor. 

That information enters a large grid cell of 10,000 others while simultaneously discarding the oldest record, somewhat like the grand scheme of life. ("Out with the old and in with the new!  Fare thee well!")

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967), Pulse Tank, 2008, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2018/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The second installation, Pulse Tank (2008) finds visitors interacting with sensors on water tanks. Computers detect pulses, sending ripples on the water which reflect shadows to fall over walls in a combination of unidentified human offerings and links.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (b. 1967), Pulse Room, 2006, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2018/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Hundreds of light bulbs electrified by visitors touching a sensor, hang from the ceiling in the third installation, Pulse Room (2006).  Heartbeats and the concomitant sounds are heard throughout the space.  As more people come through the gallery, new beats become the latest part of the bulb sensation and move on down the row or line, making a pattern of movement until they, too, exit the story at the last bulb or end.  (Question:  How long does this journey take? It would seem to depend on the number of people in the gallery.  A lot would mean a fast exit.)


Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in 1967 in Mexico City and graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a B.S. in physical chemistry. In 2003 he founded the Antimodular Research Laboratory in Montreal where engineers, architects, programmers and artists from around the world study, create and make. Now he and his team are at work on more than 20 permanent installations, commissioned by global "new age" electric collectors.

In 2007 Lozano-Hemmer's art took him to Venice and the Biennale where he was the first artist to represent Mexico. 

Large interactive Lozano-Hemmer displays may be found in New York, Vancouver, Berlin, and museums around the world.

From his website:

His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation, by perverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics, his light and shadow works are "antimonuments for alien agency".

Whether the FBI, the CIA, the FSB, or the North Koreans would okay their employees engaging in Pulse is debatable, but, on the other hand, maybe they are the ones behind it all. Could be a joint venture.


What:  Pulse by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

When:  Now through tomorrow, April 28, 2019, from 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Where:  Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall at Independence Avenue and Seventh Street, S.W.

How much:  No charge

Metro stations:  Smithsonian or L'Enfant Plaza (Maryland Avenue exit)

For more information:   202-633-1000

patricialesli@gmail.com