CEDAR FALLS – On a recent afternoon, a Hearst Center staffer stepped into the art center’s main gallery to discover a patron quietly dancing in the light cast by a new installation, “hearing it get dark (for William Faulkner).”
“She told him it was wonderful to see him so engaged with the display and asked why he was dancing, and he said, ‘because I can,” said Heather Skeens, smiling. The Hearst Center director and cultural programs supervisor said it shows how patrons are reacting to the evocative light installations by visual artist Charles Matson Lume.
An opening reception is planned from 5:30 to 7 pm. Jan. 13 at the Hearst, 304 W. Seerley Blvd. Lume will speak at 6 p.m.
His installation, open through Jan. 30, has transformed the gallery through the use of direct and indirect light sources and everyday materials, ranging from holographic paper stickers, magnifying lenses and reflective tape to silver Mylar emergency blankets and reflective star-shaped confetti, arranged to create moments to pause and reflect, to engage, to challenge – and perhaps, to dance.
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“That’s exciting to hear about such spontaneous interaction with light,” Lume said, admitting it was the first time he’d heard about anyone dancing at any of his installations. The 54-year-old artist is a professor of art and interim associate dean at the School of Art and Design at University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Light is ephemeral and endlessly intriguing, Lume said. “One reason might be because it’s ever-changing. We just had the winter solstice, so the arc of light is really low right now, and when it snows or is cloudy, the quality of light changes yet again. I’m intrigued that our moods are shaped by light and light has such profound biological and psychological effects on our general sense of well-being,” he explained.
Lume compares light to gravity. “We don’t get up in the morning and say, ‘Hey, I get to stick to the floor today.’ We don’t think about gravity because it’s always there. Light is the same way, but it provides a kind of endless joy to experiencing the world.”
There are five distinct creations in the Hearst installation featuring the interplay of light and shadow, “possibly six if you count the colored tape on the wall, which I do,” said Skeen. Like the dancing patron, viewers are having different interactions with the display, whether it’s a Zen moment or a sense of space — or outer space.
In his garage studio, Lume spends hours sorting through various materials and manipulating them using various techniques and light sources. “I think about the metaphor of Thomas Edison looking for filament for the light bulb and finding ways to use materials that might say something. Lots of materials don’t do much or have the capacity to do what I’m asking it to do. I have to be patient.”
One installation projects an orange-yellow light on a gallery wall that, at first glance, gives the appearance of wild grass or a wheat field glowing beneath a bright sun. “I love that kind of light and thought it was beautiful, and I had to think about what to do with the material and what kind of shape or form I wanted. Some materials take time, and I mature into them,” Lume said.
Weeks prior to installation, Lume visited the gallery to determine how the space and layout would work best for his creations. He installed the work himself, Skeens said, including creating metal hoods for gallery lights to gain a directional effect he was after.
“I can create the freshest work when I’m not overplanning. It doesn’t mean I don’t plan. I looked at the space, talked with Heather and met Emily (Hearst curator Emily Drennan), and then I worked in my studio, reviewing the images. I had inclinations, but the show was really a mystery until I began installing it,” the artist explained.
He enjoyed the improvisation that took place with in the space and the resulting vitality of the installation. “How one work talks to another work, there’s the way light bleeds into another space, there’s something that happens. Serendipity sometimes happens.”
This installation is influenced by Lume’s affection for author William Faulkner’s “The Sound and The Fury.”
“Literature allows us to see things in ways we might not otherwise recognize. The way Faulkner shapes his stories, he makes us work really hard. I appreciate that he believes in my intelligence and capacity to understand. I want my work to be the same kind of dialogue with a viewer.”
Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; closed Monday. There is no admission charge.