Gowanus’ Vanderbilt Republic is always up to something new and large scale, like their 2015 lighting of the Smith-9th Street Bridge. Now, they’ve turned their cool loft space into a veritable camera obscura – a modern version of the ancient devices that brought forth the modern camera. This camera obscura turns the whole loft into a dark room, with a hole that allows the outside scene to project (upside down) onto the walls inside. The Smith-9th Street Bridge figures clearly as a recurrent muse for the Vanderbilt Republic, along with the skyline of Gowanus itself, forming incongruous visions atop the loft’s walls, kitchen spaces, doors and more.
It’s a photographic monument, the creators George del Barrio and Ashton Worthington state – a “3,000 sq. ft. epistemic machine” that “will evolve through a month of experimentation, capturing an ephemeral Brooklyn panorama and personal moment in time,” they describe.
The exhibit is up through March 2nd, through Eventbrite signups. They warn that guests “must be prepared to spend a full 45 minutes in deepest darkness.”
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of The Art Spy (HarperOne, forthcoming) Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. michelleyoungwriter.com
