There will be a solar eclipse viewing event with alumna Vanessa Albury from 2 to 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21 at Sculpture Space, Inc., 12 Gates St., Utica (MAP).This event is free and open to the public.
Trash Camera Obscura by Vanessa Albury Project Description
Trash Camera Obscura is a sculptural object made from found materials that is also a functional camera, which I created from trash collected around Utica. It calls to mind earliest prehistoric occurrences of image and considers possibilities for the far future of photography amidst global climate change impacts.
In considering the future of our planet under the global crisis conditions predicted by scientists, I imagine an era when modern, high-tech devices are obsolete or ruins of our current high-tech culture. Camera Obscura have been part of creating artworks by artists from the Greeks to Vermeer to contemporary artists like Abelardo Morrell. However, some of the earliest Camera Obscura occurred naturally in caves and were likely used by the early cave painters. In the caves of Lascaux, France the cave paintings on the walls are of horses upside-down, suggesting the use of a Camera Obscura. Camera Obscura project the image of the exterior on the walls of the structure that are upside down, laterally reversed, in color and in live motion.
I built a small hut-sized Camera Obscura, a structure that is pitch dark inside except for one small aperture, with trash I collected around Utica. The hut can accommodate about 4 people, with a diameter of approximately 10 feet and a height of about 6 feet. The structure is made of aluminum frame and disassembled furniture, like a desk and a headboard, slates and fiberglass from a barn that fell down and some tree branches. I use spray foam, paint, felt and plastic trash bags to black-out the structure. I placed the primary aperture inline with the predicted location of the sun on Monday, August 21, at 2:39pm EST, the peak time of the solar eclipse visible that day. I plan to use my Trash Camera Obscura to observe and document the solar event.