Animation by Eva Lee, Sound by Michael Joel Bosco
Eye Spy.
Eye Spy morphs from image to image fast enough that you have to pay attention to see the narrative. Seals and other ocean life change into plastic bottles on the beach, the manmade objects that found their way into a bird’s stomach. Then back rushing ocean waves, lush coral of vibrant colors, sea turtles and teeming schools of fish. The music is serene with powerful, tidal undercurrents. The loop between the vivacity of the ocean and the damage we have done to it is causal in both directions. It gives us a sense of what’s at stake in the effort to adapt to climate change, and what could be if we manage to do enough.
Eye Spy — with animation by Eva Lee and sound design by Michael Joel Bosco, both New Haven-area artists — is a video installation at the center of “Futurology,” the latest show at the Ely Center running now through Aug. 22. The simple concept of the show is that artists use a face mask as their blank canvas, upon which they can project their visions for what the future holds.
The ECOCA curatorial team created an elaborate prompt for artists interested in taking part. “How do you study the future of humankind? How might artists, thinkers, and creatives envision ideas, innovations, imaginings, hopes, fears, and dreams about the future of life? Artificial Intelligence and space exploration are just some of the current technological innovations that will change the future of humanity. Will we be able to digitally upload our personalities and consciousness in the future? Will we be able to eradicate global poverty and disease, or combat climate change? Will independent, free-thinking AI robots guide us toward universal good and unity, or threaten our very existence?” the prompt reads. “We invite all creatives to share their own visions of the future … to transform an eye-mask shaped “canvas” template, provided by ECOCA, to explore your hopes, dreams, fears, and predictions and be part of collective virtual tapestry.”
The show is born out of “Covimetry,” an all-virtual show ECOCA hosted from April to June, which invited artists to use the all-too-familiar shape of face masks as a canvas to make art. That show “really hinged on art making during the pandemic,” said Maxim Schmidt, ECOCA’s gallery coordinator and curatorial assistant. With the Covid-19 situation changing dramatically from April to now — and with what lay ahead still uncertain — “we wanted to do something that altered the motif,” and was about “imagining the future.”
Thus the move from one type of mask to another, to the domino mask associated with both superheroes and bank robbers in old movies, a mask that suggested vision and transformation. “It was a sneaky little shift,” Schmidt said, and one that added a new ingredient, making it more “light and playful.”
To Schmidt, it seemed perhaps a welcome response to coming out of a dark time, changing the narrative to “the idea that there is a future. It’s a way to get unstuck.”
Schmidt’s impulse turned out to be prescient, as the shape does seem to have inspired artists to turn to a more hopeful, playful mode. Jacqueline Gleisner’s The Future Is Free even has a video component to it, the energy in the layout and the animation suggesting that the mask is the sort of thing you might wear to an all-night dance party.
Holly Wong
Icarus 4.
Holly Wong’s Icarus 4, meanwhile, is so alive with possibility that it might require a 10-day bender to explore it all.
Sarah Schneiderman
Beverly H. Burks, First Black and First Woman Mayor of Clarkston, GA.
Sarah Schneiderman’s piece, meanwhile, addresses the political turmoil of the past few years by pointing to a success story. The mask wearer is invited to a radical form of empathy, seeing through another person’s eyes, and representing themselves to the world with that person’s face.
The call to artists to participate in “Futurology” remains open throughout the run, as a way to continue to reach out to practicing artists and the general public. Last year ECOCA used the shutdown as an opportunity to expand its online presence, creating virtual exhibits that artists from around the world could participate in and people from anywhere could see. Now, even with the gallery space open, ECOCA has kept its international reach as part of its programming. Some of the artists in “Futurology” are as far away as the Dutch Caribbean and South Korea.
But ECOCA is also as keen to engage New Haven as ever. The most obvious sign of this is the small table at the entrance to the gallery room that has markers, clipboards and mask outlines ready for anyone who would like to be a part of “Futurology.” We are all invited to imagine what the future holds — for ourselves, those around us, even the planet. The materials on the table are also a way to make art galleries, which can be intimidating places, that much more inviting, giving everyone a reason to be there.
“How can we make art making accessible and enticing — and even a little fun?” Schmidt said.
“Futurology” runs at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, 51 Trumbull St., through Aug. 22. Visit ECOCA’s website for hours and more information.
