First Friday Art Walk Print 2009 by Ciaran Brennan
EDITOR’S NOTE: Each year since 2006, Kasini House, the producers of Burlington’s First Friday Art Walk and publishers of Art Map Burlington, commissions a limited edition print from a Vermont artist to commemorate First Friday Art Walk and Burlington’s art community. The image of the print is used as the First Friday Art Walk poster for the season. An original print is on display at various venues around Burlington. Past artists have been Ira Cummings (2006), Torrey Valyou (2007), and Colin-Patrick Charles (2008). The 2009 artist is Ciaran Brennan, a photographer whose work has appeared as part of the Art’s Alive Festival of Fine Art and the South End Art Hop in recent years, as well as in solo exhibitions at the galleries of Kasini House Gallery and Art’s Alive. He was also included in the New England Photographers Biennial Exhibition at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Massachusetts. Here is Brennan’s essay about the 2009 First Friday Art Walk Print:
by Ciaran Brennan
For several months I had been researching “flying saints”; the depiction of religious ecstatic levitation in Renaissance and Baroque art. In these fantastic images, a saint in the height of ecstasy is swept aloft by the Holy Spirit, to the amazement of all who witness it. Although I am not a religious man, these images invoke in me a desire to experience such an extraordinary event, to be witness to something so transcendent and transformative. If only such wonderful things happened in the world that I inhabit!
For several years my artistic practice has revolved around a type of re-enactment, where I re-interpret images or iconography from the canon of Western Art in the setting of my own everyday life. The photographs I make attempt to capture and define both a bit of cultural memory as well as a bit of personal or family history. So following this practice, I sought to use the imagery of ecstatic levitation to interpret (and promote) the Burlington art scene.
Art, when experienced truly and deeply, can be an ecstatic experience. You put aside your doubts – doubts about non-reality and artifice. You put aside your fears – fears that you don’t know enough about art, that you don’t know if it’s good, that you don’t understand. You enter into the moment – the moment when you experience the art, the moment when you allow it to move you. And then, if the art is good, if you’re in the mood, you may feel it – that little tingle, the feel of lightness, the small moment of ecstasy. It won’t make you fly, but you may almost believe that somehow, if you could refine and perfect it, it could.
Experiencing Contemporary Art in a small city like Burlington requires a bit more willingness to believe, even a bit more bravery, than experiencing art in the august museums and prestigious galleries of a major city. The artwork rarely has the endorsement of famous critics or curators, the artist probably isn’t in any art history book, and the art market hasn’t rendered its approval in the form of extravagant prices. There maybe nothing to tell you that you’re supposed to like it. You’re on your own – just you and the artwork. But if you’re willing to take a leap of faith, to dare to believe without being told it’s OK – then you can find the art that will make you feel like flying.
In making this picture I wanted to capture both a location and an individual who represent the local art scene. Liza Cowan’s wonderful gallery, the Pine Street Art Works, was the perfect spot. Liza does a great job of representing both local and national artists in her gallery, and it is an anchor of the vigorous art community of Burlington’s south end. The work on display when I shot the photo was by the up and coming New York artist TMNK. The look of the space is just right for Burlington– part sophisticated, part funky, and part low rent. My model was local artist, curator and reviewer Karen M. Geiger – a good friend and someone I know is open to artistic ecstasy. Working with Karen was a real joy, and she was as much a collaborator as a model during this shoot.
Finally, and of least importance, is the technical nature of the picture. It was shot using a digital SLR camera mounted on a tripod. As in many of my works, multiple frames were combined in Photoshop to create the final image. In this image, a foreground shot illuminated by natural light and fill-flash was combined with several background shots with varying lighting to produce the overall effect of levitation and ethereal illumination.
I am thrilled to have the honor of representing the First Friday Art Walk and the Burlington Art Scene with my photograph. I hope it inspires the viewer not only to come out and see the art, but to let go of their inhibitions and really experience it.
Brennan’s First Friday Art Walk print will be officially unveiled during November’s First Friday Art Walk during a reception at the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts on November 6th from 6-7PM.
The print will be exhibited at various locations in Burlington in the next year. An edition of thirty original prints is available for purchase. Visit CLICK HERE for more details.
