Bushwick residents seem hip to the idea of making art for the community. Festivals like Bushwick Open Studios provide audiences with a peek inside the studio doors of local artists. But what about people living in Bushwick day in and day out? What do they see? The sidewalks, buildings and street fashion can be enough stimulation in and of itself, but why is Bushwick being compared to Manhattan gallery communities? After attending the opening for “Spun O Lith” at Fitness Center for Arts and Tactics on Friday night, I find myself asking whether or not Bushwick artists make art specifically for Bushwick artists.
Rebecca Gaffney, lead curator for Spun O Lith, is a Brooklyn-based video and installation artist who works with out-of-phase strobe light and reflections of performers in live camera feedback. She likes to improvise with light, music and sound. And Spun O Lith was just that – the improvising of visual materials within a space.
But what does that improvisation do for the viewer? Do we hope for something magical to happen? Do we stare at the machinery long and hard until what we think is important, happens? Through a tangled web of video projections and a system of mirrors, the Spun O Lith viewer is immediately stimulated with reflective materials – all supposedly found on the streets of Brooklyn, also referred to as “covert trash operations.” Channels of video feedback manipulate what you see. It’s a slow manipulation and you have to linger in the space to notice it. You may experience your refracted self, but never a refraction of reality.
