Oakland-based artist Chris Fraser has created an impressive set of sight-specific installations that all consist of sharp cracks of light. He strategically creates holes or slits in walls, coaxing light into various formations. His works are often interactive, providing the viewer with a memorable and unique experience.
In the Make has a great interview with Fraser where he describes his creative process and what he hopes to accomplish as an artist. “I would like my work to point back into the world. I spend a lot of time crafting specific situations, framing light in such a way that it reveals a portion of the complex order within the ambient environment. But there is nothing particularly special about the light that enters these works. Echoes of this same order can be found in your home, entering your windows, skirting around furniture, slipping through a crack in the door. I want to call attention to a type of beauty that usually goes unnoticed.”
Fraser is currently showing In Passing at Disjecta Contemporary Art Center in Portland, Oregon until March 2, 2013. His most ambitious work to date, the exhibition is described by Visual Art Source as a “wonderland of color and line.” Fraser has built a three-sided corridor with white walls. Visitors walk through the darkened hallway experiencing beams of colored light as it passes through the walls.
Here's Willamette Week's glowing review, “If you haven't seen Chris Fraser's installation In Passing, run, don't walk, to check out what is certain to be one of 2013's most crowd-pleasing, trippy and sheer f*ing gorgeous shows. The San Francisco-based artist worked with curator-in-residence Josephine Zarkovich to create an immersive experience, which viewers walk through. There's a long, three-sided corridor on the gallery's perimeter, with vertical and diagonal slots that spray prisms of colored light onto the interior walls. When you come to the hallway's corners, the light plays tricks with your eyes, creating a foggy atmosphere that is pure optical illusion. It's one part James Turrell, one part 2001: A Space Odyssey. You simply have to see it.”
Chris Fraser's website
Thanks for the tip, Joshua G!
