It took me a year and a half to settle in and figure out how I would make the space work for me. When I found out that Shohei was moving away for grad school, I sort of pounced on the space without really having a clear idea of how I was going to use it. He’s the one that transformed the garage and adjacent room from a raw state into a pristine white gallery space, which he called Thinkbox Contemporary, and he used the back room as his art studio. The space was previously rented by Shohei. Sheherazade’s existence is owed largely to my friend Shohei Katayama. How did you come across this space? To your knowledge, how was it used before? I interviewed Julie Leidner to learn more about the history of the space and her vision for its future. Sheherazade offers artists like Norman Spencer a platform to do so in a place where a multitude of people converge. Public art encourages, humanizes, and brings together the surrounding community. The gallery holds a recollection of a different season, something we cannot touch but can only access through the glass of our memory. Spencer uses these symbols of life and renewal to fill the space, the bright and fluttering swaths of color directly opposed to the cold street outside. Her bare shoulders and patterned dress suggest warmth and celebration. The central image is the same on each of the three panels: a large block print of a smiling woman. Ginkgo leaves become maple and oak leaves. The pattern changes as the panels recede, suggesting shifts in a cycle. Cyanotype panels contain ghost-like images of ginkgo leaves and moths-I think of the ginkgo trees I’ve seen in local parks, planted along Main Street, and on University of Louisville’s campus. There is a simple joy in seeing something familiar recreated by someone else’s hands: “Hey, that looks like my old apartment.” Spencer’s older work celebrates these historic structures with the roughly-hewn lines of block prints, the traces of the artist’s labor made visible.įeatured in an Old Louisville art space, Light and Shadow literally exists within the architecture of Spencer’s oeuvre, but this installation explores more organic forms. The first time I saw Spencer’s work, I was drawn to his prints of Victorian houses, many of which I recognized from the area. The inaugural show features Norman Spencer, a self-taught printmaker. She also desires to promote artists who may not already have a foothold in Louisville’s art scene. Her mission statement calls for risk and challenges to the status quo. Leidner has made conscious decisions about the type of work shown at Sheherazade. Everyone is on the outside the best vantage point is public and shared. The window keeps you out physically, but it does so impartially. The space asks nothing of its viewer-it doesn’t matter what clothes you are wearing, who you are with, or why you’re in the neighborhood. You walk down the street at any hour and the lights are on. Leidner has reimagined the space as a site where art is presented to the viewer with minimal barriers. Artist Julie Leidner facilitates Sheherazade, and it was here that she met the space’s former resident. Yet creativity still manages to thrive in Old Louisville, a neighborhood where artists often cross paths with each other. Positioned across from a dive bar and a food mart, Sheherazade’s location is not exactly the seat of Louisville’s art community. Old Louisville is a place where many demographics briefly intersect. For one weekend in October, the streets will flood with the bourgeois attendees of the St. The surrounding neighborhood of Old Louisville is known for its Victorian houses, some of which are well-preserved family homes for the wealthy, while most are split into rented apartments for college students, young adults, and low-income families. The garage-turned-art-gallery is illuminated 24/7 with site-specific installations visible only to passersby on Magnolia Street. Sheherazade is never open and never closed. “Light and Shadow” Julie Leidner on a Reimagined Space
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |