2014 Exhibition
DLECTRICITY is Detroit’s nighttime festival of art + light that featured over 35 world-renowned and emerging artists whose cutting-edge works of art illuminated Midtown Detroit in 2014, from the Detroit Institute of Arts down to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This two-night “Nuit Blanche” festival was scheduled for Friday, September 26 and Saturday, September 27 in Midtown Detroit from 7:00 p.m. to midnight. Saturday night also featured the DLECTRICITY Light Bike Parade where thousands of cyclists biked a 4-mile route through Midtown Detroit, adding extra light and energy to the streets. Weekend programming also included artist talks and performances. DLECTRICITY is produced by Midtown Detroit, Inc. and is free to the public.
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5. Katabasis
One day it occurred to me that the entire foundation for our built environment is rooted in various notions of perfection; the perfect strip mall, the perfect modestly priced family car, the perfect microwave. These things are all designed to fill a market niche or replace a product currently filling the niche with a “more perfect” version. It also occurred to me that most of these “perfect things” now begin life in computer-aided 3D modeling – a medium where perfection can thrive without the constraints of gravity, scale or scarcity of resources. Over the past few years I’ve worked a lot with 3D models and amassed quite a hefty collection of these “perfect objects.” I started to think about their life cycle – an object is modeled in Sketchup, prototyped, manufactured, then trashed and replaced by a better object designed in Sketchup.
Katabasis is a 40-minute video landscape with audio accompaniment that moves the viewer though an elaborately constructed Sketchup junkyard to explore the themes of death and rebirth. In various world mythologies Katabasis refers to a trip to the underworld. The trance-like animation of this film carries viewers through an underworld wasteland of 3D models through the journey from death to rebirth.
Performances start on Friday and Saturday at 9pm and 11pm at the CCS Ford Kresge Building.
Cooper Holoweski
Cooper Holoweski was born in Detroit, Michigan. He holds a BA in political science and BFA in printmaking from the University of Michigan and an MFA from RISD. In 2004 he was the artist in residence at Taller 99 in Santiago, Chile and in 2006 he was the artist in residence at Gallery Titanik in Turku, Finland. In 2009 he was awarded the RISD/Skowhegan matching grant and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work has been featured at Storefront Bushwick, Famous Accountants, and the Untitled Art Fair. His video work has been praised by Art in America as “magical” and “infinitely watchable.” His piece Katabasis, a 40 min video with live score, has been screened at such venues as the BRIC House in Brooklyn, Space Gallery in Portland, ME, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
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