Allora & Calzadilla

Puerto Rican Light will include three works by Allora & Calzadilla that utilize a variety of representational means to convey light "from" the island of Puerto Rico: the installation Traffic Patterns (2001-2003), a photograph from the series Seeing Otherwise (1999-2003), and the sculptural project Puerto Rican Light (2003).

Traffic Patterns consists of a drop ceiling containing a unique lighting system that synchronizes the lighting in the gallery space to a traffic light in the city of San Juan, PR. The gallery will be illuminated for some minutes with red light, followed by a brief moment in yellow, and then green. To achieve this synchronization, the lighting system uses a specially designed controller/relay device connected to a computer chip programmed with the time-code of the traffic light. Although Traffic Patterns has been exhibited previously, its presentation in Puerto Rican Light will be the first instance of linking two cities together, and of literally transmitting to New York City an organizing pattern located in Puerto Rico.

Initiated in 1999, Seeing Otherwise is a series of photographic seascapes taken mainly on the shoreline of Puerto Rico that depict an individual contemplating the sunset. With an almost indiscernible digital manipulation to the photograph, the sunrays over the sea are deflected from the camera lens to the individual in each respective photo. The deliberate deflection of light emphasizes the individual who is viewing the sunset. Symbolically, this accentuates what would be impossible to see otherwise- what another person sees as they experience a sunset. For Puerto Rican Light, one photograph from this series will be featured, Seeing Otherwise (Cataño).

Puerto Rican Light , consists of capturing and storing solar energy in a battery bank especially designed to provide the proper voltage to light Puerto Rican Light (to Jeanie Blake), a 1965 sculpture by artist Dan Flavin. During the month of April, the battery bank, which is connected to solar panels, will be located in the gardens of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, PR. Once full of solar energy, the battery bank will be shipped to the Americas Society, where it will be connected to Flavin’s fluorescent light sculpture. The battery bank will supply enough energy to light Flavin’s sculpture throughout the exhibition.

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Allora & Calzadilla: Puerto Rican Light
Jennifer Allora und Guillermo Calzadilla