Shadow Gallery
2022
The Shadow Gallery was simply a pipe-dream.
After a camping trip with a friend, I wanted print one of my photos out; print is a lost art in the photography world and I want to keep it alive. However, I realized that once I have printed the photo, there wasn't anyone to show it to besides friends and family. Keeping my photo was not an option either... it is not fulfilling enough.
An art gallery was the perfect solution to my problem. However, an art gallery exclusively filled with my art is too narcissistic for my taste. I wanted to spread the opportunity of sharing one's art to others. This may stem from my passion for creating experiences (Yama).
Find the art
Art by: Aiden Torres
As the purpose of the gallery is to showcase others' unique pieces of art - unmoderated, but curated - I began to search through my immediate surroundings. Friends and family were very generous and excited to share their art in the gallery. A few clever individuals expressed interest after finding the poster in the wild.
Many people shipped their art from around the country to get their art in the show.
Art by: Shannon McCubbin
Photos by: Demetri Zervos
Find the music
In order to add to the surrealism of the exhibition, I wanted to include a jazz band performance. In fact, I started to advertise that there would be a jazz band before I even secured anyone to perform.
I was able to find some connections through in-person soliciting outside the music practice rooms. Although my behavior may at first seemed out of place and potentially annoying, most people found the concept of the Shadow Gallery very interesting. Eventually, I found the perfect, and only group of jazz musicians who would agree to perform.
Musicians:
Find the people
Before we stepped into the realm of Adobe XD, we wanted to get a clear understanding of Yama's brand mood. We created dozens of iterations of mood and style boards like the examples above. We decided that Yama was very much an outdoors brand. We wanted to convey that through the earthy colors. We used four analogous colors with a splash of a complimentary color.
For Yama's typography, we chose a sans serif font available to us through Adobe Fonts. This design decision was based on the fact that the font complemented the calming earth tones. With our colors, fonts, and mood figured out, we took to Adobe XD.
Find the lights and camera
The process in finding lights to use proved to be very political, unmalleable, and stressful. Michigan State University was incredibly unsupportive in my pursuit of this project even though I was an MSU student and showcasing MSU student's pieces of art. Unless I was in the Communication Art and Science college, there was no possible way to rent the lights out, said superiors who were in charge of the equipment, even though most of the equipment lay dormant and unused. You would think that if a student wanted to pursue a creative endeavor, the school would happily endorse it, especially if it is a unique project like the Shadow Gallery. In order to get the lights, I had to think of some loopholes. I simply had to find a student in the college who could rent them out for me. Unfortunately, students need permission from a professor for a current class project. Many of the students I reached out to did not have access. With a stroke of good fortune, I found a student, not only in the college, but had access to LED lights. I only met this person days before the actual event. However, I was very much determined to find this person in the name of a successful event. I hope that Michigan State University reconsiders who can and cannot rent the equipment in the ComArts building.
The event
The event went off without a hitch, regardless of all of the barricades and obstacles that were trying to stop the Shadow Gallery's success. The jazz band was incredible, the art looked spectacular in the dim light, the atmosphere was dream-like and exactly how I imagined it. I can only speculate what one might have thought if they coincidentally stumbled across the event while taking a walk at 8 PM on Friday night in October. It must not have been dissimilar to a fever-dream. At peak, the attendance hovered around 25 people at once. Before and after, people trickled in or out. I had the opportunity to speak with a lot of interesting and interested people about the fruition of the Shadow Gallery, its future, and how they can be involved.
Below you can find a video of the first Shadow Gallery event.
Drums: Wyatt Harris
Bass: Dylan Sherman
Saxophone: Sam Gucwa