“INSIDE OUT” concludes presentation of Sidewalk Cinema at Main Street Square

Final rotation features work by international selection of artists: Kevin Cooley, Chris Doyle, Christoph Heyden, Electric Donut and Prince Varughese Thomas 

Inside Out, the final contemporary video installation at Sidewalk Cinema, will be on view from October 25, 2017, to January 15, 2018, in two windows of the Sakowitz garage at 1111 Main Street.

The installation is part of Art Blocks, a public art initiative the Downtown District launched in Feb. 2016 with an aim to repurpose and reenergize under realized spaces through public art that is accessible to all.

“Aurora Picture Show has been a fantastic partner for Sidewalk Cinema,” said Angie Bertinot, Marketing Director of the Downtown District. “From the start, they have curated eye-catching and thought-provoking videos that both delight and challenge passersby, and this final rotation is no exception.”

For Inside Out, the featured artists expand viewers’ perceptions by translating everyday objects and emotions into something new and unexpected. The 45-minute video reel features exclusively vertical works that play on alternating loops in windows facing Main Street and Dallas Street.

Featured works include:

• Red, White, & Blue (2017) by Los Angeles- and Brooklyn-based artist Kevin Cooley. The work can be interpreted as a political smokescreen that shifts between the colors of the American flag, or as an explosive fit of social unrest in a metaphorical battle between opposing points of view.
• Pool (2016), by interdisciplinary artist Chris Doyle, is a series of animations dealing with the cultural construction of landscape. Partially hand-drawn and partially digital, the animation brings patterns and abstraction together into dialogue with a natural landscape.
• Chance (2017), an animation of patterns and colors with cards, also by Chris Doyle.
• Glimmers of Hope (2017) by Christoph Heyden, a video artist based in Munich. In this work, Heyden considers the idea of hope and attempts to trigger that emotion through organic colors in motion.
• Tablet Tumbler Flat Roller (2015), a project of Kristin Lucas and Joe McKay developed under the collective name Electric Donut. The work depicts a series of New York City-area living spaces from the point of view of a large-scale rolling device outfitted with multiple cameras.
• White Wash (2014) by Houston artist Prince Varughese Thomas. The video graphically represents 24 hours of CNN programming from January 17, 1991, at the start of the first Persian Gulf War.

“I am really pleased with this final group of artists for Sidewalk Cinema,” said Mary Magsamen, curator for the Aurora Picture Show. “Their artworks investigate their ideas with abstraction and color turning the world we know into something new. They have insightfully interpreted and translated our perceptions into these beautiful and mesmerizing vertical videos where our worlds are turned ‘inside out.’”

For more information,  go to www.artblockshouston.org.  

photos by Morris Malakoff