The Neighborhood Gallery!

The Neighborhood Gallery! (2020) is a 53-second video filmed in ten areas of a single neighborhood. Each site features unique 3D art tracked and composited to fit seamlessly within the environment. While none of the installations physically exist, some of them nod to real contemporary art pieces, such as Hank Willis Thomas's A Suspension of Hostilities and Sterling Ruby's SPECTER.

Filming for this piece involved casually walking around my neighborhood and recording locations, similar to how I might document a real gallery exhibition. However, unlike a typical gallery visitor, I would also need to fill the roles of artist, curator, and director.

After determining high-contrast points from the live footage, Blender translated the points into a virtual camera. This virtual camera mimicked the physical camera’s movement within a 3D scene. 360-degree photos from each location provided accurate reflections of the surrounding neighborhood. Compositing involved layering and masking live footage layers to occlude the right portions of the 3D objects.

Jason Kummerfeldt's photography book titled The Orb of Confusion heavily inspired the creation of this video. His photographs from this collection each feature an imaginary chrome sphere placed into various landscapes. Although the orb doesn't exist as shown, its surface reflects its environment, giving it a tangible quality. I originally wanted to translate Jason's project into a video format, but this concept quickly changed. I saw these vacant spaces as potential locations for contemporary art installations. Hence, The Neighborhood Gallery! was born.

This piece reflects the year of its creation: a time of stay-at-home orders placed on California residents due to Covid-19.

I miss the experience of visiting art galleries and exploring new places. I can't go to new places to view art, so I decided to bring the artwork to me. Unbounded limitations of physical resources, I curated a virtual gallery and placed it within my neighborhood.

Physically fabricating each art piece would require tremendous time, materials, costs, and labor. Digitally integrating them into a blank environment creates an experience much greater than the sum of its parts. The project lends itself to future iterations with more intentional curatorial practices. A relationship between art installations and the environment communicates meaningful messages in a fun, accessible, and imaginative way.

Credits

Music by Tourist

Tools

Made in Blender, After Effects, and Premiere Pro