For four years, Andy Behrne constructed a three-dimensional dome that submerges viewers into a surreal, underwater world. This artifice presents flickers of lights flowing inside the dome through video projections. The exhibit debuts at the Pichard Art Gallery Aug. 19 to Oct. 23.
“Last Saturday we had a man named Ryan Harvey, who is a Juilliard-trained violinist, come and he gave a free performance and it was — it was beautiful,” said Assistant Director of Prichard Art Gallery, Nara Woodland. “It took it to a whole new level. The music seemed to almost change with the way the light being projected onto the dome happened.”
Roger Rowley, director of Prichard Art Gallery, said Andy Behrle received a grant to create the “hydrodome.” He said Behrle created the frame out of wood and bolts and then applied clear shrink-wrap, the kind often used to wrap boats when they are being made or shipped across the country.
“It comes in both clear, white and blue, and so he was working in both clear and white. The white holds the image here (on the surface of the “hydrodome”) but it makes the inside a little less — a little more muted,” Rowley said.
Different videos of moving water are projected onto the dome, creating a feeling of calm. Rowley said most footage was shot by Behrle himself, although there is one video shot by a scientist studying at the University of Idaho.
“There may be additional videos coming from other scientists,” he said.
Andy Behrle is originally from Massachusetts, and currently lives in Zillah, Washington, outside of Yakima, Rowley said. He said Behrle has mostly shown in the Greater Seattle and Portland areas during his time in the northwest, and has even displayed the “hydrodome” in the works.
“This is the first time ever the whole dome has been constructed and presented,” he said.
Woodland said she was amazed at the art piece, and did not think photographs could do it justice, as the feeling of the dome couldn’t be communicated by visuals alone.
Behrle has two other displays in the gallery, both of which are consistent with the watery light theme. These pieces are known as digital wallpaper, and involve a projector displaying a fixed pattern framing various video-clips of moving water.
“How you read the structure, the image, kind of evolves in terms of the underlying image,” Rowley said.
The “hydrodome” is the first exhibit in the Chamber Series, a collection of very different artworks. Rowley said the common factor is the gallery itself changing its space to accommodate each piece.
“Generally speaking, a gallery will be ‘here’s the space, give me your art, we’ll put it on the wall’ … for the Chamber Series we really want to think about ‘what is it that the artwork demands’,” he said.
For the “hydrodome,” Rowley said they wanted to control incoming light and reduce visual business, which they achieved by constructing an additional wall and boxing the dome off from the rest of the gallery. He said the wall could be moved anywhere to change the space and help the gallery conform to the art.
The last day of the “hydrodome” exhibit will be Oct. 23, with a reception Friday, August 26, 5-7 p.m.
“I would like to encourage all students to come down and see this exhibit,” Woodland said. “It’s not something they would normally see, unless they were in a larger city, and Andy’s work is important to the artwork that is going on today in contemporary art, and I think that even people who feel like they don’t understand art or don’t know much about it, they walk away with an appreciation that will be very valuable.”
Nina Rydalch
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