Illuminated Ark

Bringing the Ark to South First St.

I created the Illuminated Ark specifically for the 2010 Absolute Zero nighttime Street Art Festival that was held on Friday, September 17th on South First Street in San Jose, CA. The Friday night event was part of a four-day biennial art festival (Sept.16th-19th) presented by ZERO1 devoted to arts and technology. The purpose of the interactive sculpture was to represent Art Ark Gallery (1035 S. 6th St.) at the art festival and to encourage public engagement. On the evening of the event the public was invited to enter the interior of the Ark to manipulate shadow puppets against the back lit translucent fabric walls of the vessel. Master Puppeteer, Judy Roberto, coordinated the making and manipulating of the shadow puppets. On the outside of the Ark a video montage was projected on the sail above the vessel. The video montage was composed of video shorts submitted by eleven local artists: Ema Simtamarian, Nora Raggio, Alex Oliva, Nanette Wiylde, Patrick Milillo, Sieglinde Van Damme, M. Daalder, Mark Arsenault, Michal Gavish, Shaun Benak, and Happy Hollow Park and Zoo.

The 14’ long x 21’ tall x 6’ wide vessel is constructed of steel, wood, and fabric. Judy Roberto was the seamstress who created the skin fabric walls of the vessel.