Among Us: Garner Arts Interactive Art Installation Calls for Community Awareness

Sharon Falk, a visual artist, began her career in a place where highlighting the poignant moments of life is the order of the day – a news station. She described a hallway filled with folds of photographs of news from around the world. These vignettes of life fascinated Falk, who, in addition to working in the office, was the only graphic artist for the outlet.

When Falk worked at the station, there were no screens behind the anchor. Instead, it was up to artists such as herself to work on the fly to create pieces that would hang behind the anchors, sometimes blowing on the painted pieces to dry them mere seconds before the cameras would begin broadcasting. She loved the energy and vitality of the art. After several years, Falk began working as a court artist sketching trials. However, she never quite lost her fascination with the folds of photographs flowing into the newsroom. As Falk flipped through a well loved sketchbook, she shared sketches of what she calls “gestures”, or poses, ripped from the pictures that poured in at her old job. These sketches helped her practice perspective, angles and bodily dynamism while also keeping active in her art. 

This activity encouraged her to keep playing with movement, which eventually led Falk creating gestures through a new medium of rice paper and acrylic wash. The nature of rice paper encourages the acrylic wash, which has an effect similar to watercolor, to bleed through the veining of the paper. This “bleeding” created “a lot of really marvelous accidents,” noted Falk as she indicated the framed displays of her earlier gesture work. The physical gestures that emerged from these smaller rice paper works brought forth an emotional gesture alongside the physical one that then inspired Falk to craft a larger canvas for these pieces.

For the larger artwork, Falk created the acrylic wash by mixing the complimentary colors of red and green. To Falk, the mixture represented how opposites work together to create balance in life. This acrylic wash was then painted on rice paper, the colors blending to resemble the ever flowing colors of the ocean, and was torn into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces were used to compose the gestures Falk brings forth for each piece. 

Falk began her project with an idea for the architecture of the gesture she was crafting, but found that the pieces took her on an unexpected journey. “Once you try to direct something, it tightens up, it loses its freedom,” shared Falk as she walked amongst her pieces, taking in their individual quirks as the light shone through. She described how each figure she created stood balanced in their point of time, their own individual experience.

Falk treated each of her pieces with the respect of a three-dimensional human, and indeed, the room felt more full than it was. Each piece was suspended by two lengths of jute rope, leaving enough room for audiences to maneuver themselves between the displays. By walking through Falk’s work, one is reminded of the butterfly effect. Audiences cannot take a single step without their actions having an equal and opposite reaction from the pieces. The swish of a coat, the turn of a hip, the breeze of breath all have an effect on the art. This movement invites audiences to view their seemingly inconsequential actions in day to day life with a fresh eye. It invites them to reconsider how their own movements affect those around them. 

The rice paper the art inhabits is fibrous, with tiny tendrils at the edge of the fraying pieces stretching outwards. “They’re raw, they’re torn, they’re very much about us…it’s an unfinished quality. They’re hanging, fragile, but they’re also resilient,” said Falk. 

Each section of rice paper collages together with another, and another, and another, and holds its own story and color quality. These individual rice paper pieces ask for reminiscence on the collage of audiences’ lives, and how their experiences have created the gestures they inhabit today. 

The pieces capture bodies on the precipice – one caught balanced on their toes, one with a back arched towards the sky, one in mid leap, and another sprinting away (or perhaps towards). “You don’t know who they are, but in some ways, they’re all of us.” Falk hopes that this awareness of the interconnectedness of life and humanity will bleed into the minds of audiences, encouraging “a little respect and kindness to each other.”

Falk applauded the supportive environment she has found at the Garner Arts Center and the lifelong friendships she has cultivated from within the community. “Garner Arts Center is, for me, a creative place full of energy where artists come together…The building has long been a historic focal point of the community,” shared Falk. 

The pictures of Falk’s art fail to encapsulate the humanity of the artwork. Falk encourages Rocklanders to visit the gallery to experience the art for themselves. 

Sharon Falk’s Among Us is a part of a group exhibition at the Garner Arts Center, curated by James Tyler. This exhibition will be on display until February 23rd at the Main Gallery in Building 35. The Gallery Hours are Friday 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.