Right next to UIS Library, the Visual Art Gallery is hosting a new Exhibition: “Turn on Every Light” by artist Heather Brammeier. The event is a celebration of the human instinct to collect and reinvent. According to the press release, Heather Brammeier was in Buenos Aires when she first walked through a flea market full of intricate arrangements of objects, including an umbrella festooned with shards of frosted glass. “Do not touch” handwritten signs gave her the impression to appreciate more the disposition of the objects rather than their value. Her intent and the source of her inspiration are visualized through photographs within the exhibit.
Furthermore, her creativity also came from workshops and garages where people “find innovative ways to make multiples visible and accessible,” as she expresses in the exhibition’s statement. Collecting things is not as easy as it seems to be. It requires a unique organizational system. In this sense, the exhibit brochure explains how her artistic work is an investigation of which way light and color may be diffused, amplified and distorted using plastic and water, and she embraces the imperfections of discarded things to repurpose them in ways that blend the improvised with the exquisite. The resulting exhibit is a place where visuals may overwhelm, but the organization within the disorder brings pleasure and peace.
My visits to the gallery both during daylight and sunset revealed the transformative effect of changing light on the environment. In the late afternoon, the illumination coming solely from the lamps arranged in the exhibition allowed a nuances’ observation of how lights and colors interact with different surfaces. The hanging installations, adorned with meaningful quotes written on tiny papers, particularly caught my attention. Heather’s visual puzzles invite viewers to wander within and around the pieces. In this sense, as I was wandering around the artwork, those paper notes began to float, giving a sense of lightness and gentleness. The artwork mimics emotional and psychological barriers by pushing the bounds of perception and movement. Considerations of safety and threat, love and loss, and the complexity of emotional experience are prompted by attention to surfaces, the use of light and shadows and the arrangement of common and daily tools, such as tennis balls, water bottles, candies, and more.
According to the artist’s website, Heather Brammeier is now Professor of Art at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. She is also known worldwide thanks to her appearance at the Museo Alejandro Berro in Uruguay; the Swansea College of Art in Wales, U.K.; and CICA Museum in Gimpo, Korea. Curator Alice Gray Stites recently selected Brammeier for Furies, Fairies, Visionaries at Pen and Brush Gallery in New York. Brammeier’s most recent award was Best in Show at the South Bend Museum of Art Biennial 29.
The UIS Visual Art Gallery opened in 1975 and has served as the main location for art installations and events. In 1992, the gallery moved to the Health and Sciences Building, room 201 (HSB 201). The gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“Turn on Every Light” opened Jan. 16 and runs through Feb. 8. The gallery will host an exhibit reception on Jan. 25 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Free food and drinks will be served, and artist Heather Brammeier will be available to field questions regarding her artwork.
To learn more about the gallery and future exhibitions, please visit: