What happens when this …… and this …… come together in one site-specific installation ????
Jon Latiano (left) and Jennifer Strunge (right)
Last year, the Rauschenberg Foundation gave School 33 Art Center a $100,000 Grant for Artistic Innovation and Collaboration and one project has come to fruition: Co-Lab(oration): Nanotecture, a site-specific installation by Jonathan Latiano and Jennifer Strunge. The idea behind the project was to bring diverse artists together to create experimental work and to transform ‘non-gallery’ spaces into new types of environments to experience art. Case in point: Latiano and Strunge were given a former phone-booth tucked halfway up the back stairs at School 33. The result is an interesting hybrid of architecture, geology, and biological forms.
While it does uncannily resemble the Sarlacc, a giant man-eating pit that Jabba the Hutt attempted to throw Han Solo and Luke Skywalker into in Return of the Jedi, Nanotecture’s stark white color comes off as pure and light and definitely unthreatening, although highly organic. There is an airiness and a grace in this piece, the stunning result of white feathers, fur, plaster, and the circulation of natural light through layers of materials. Additionally, the transition from School 33’s architecture to this piece is seamless and magical.
“Nanotecture” will be up for the next year at School 33, and experiencing it in person is well worth the trouble of finding a parking spot in Federal Hill. There are photos below, but they do not do it justice. – CO
details from Co-Lab(oration): Nanotecture, a site-specific installation by Jonathan Latiano and Jennifer Strunge
Tufts of fur sprouting out of the wall
Attempting to get a photo of the whole thing. You can see the weird transitions out onto the floor – it looks like the thing’s tentacles have grown under the floor like tree roots.
Can we just leave it up forever???
Check out more individual work by Latiano and Strunge.
*Author and amateur photographer Cara Ober is the editor of Bmoreart.
