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Gronk: BrainFlame
and Ainadamar
Welcome to the inside of an artist's mind--a 5,000
square-foot digitally animated depiction of what happens
during epiphany. Welcome into Gronk's brain and to
a powerful new artist medium.
The
Arts Technology Center, ARTS Lab, and LodeStar, all
of the University of New Mexico, present a world premiere
opening of Gronk's BrainFlame. BrainFlame
is a 14-minute computer animated piece created specifically
for the LodeStar Dome Theater. Describing the flashpoint
in a creative thought, we move from a rocky desert
landscape through an emerging garden, following an
artist up into a giant glass brain. The artist disintegrates
into a swirling mass of elemental thought as a new
work of art emerges, immersing the audience in the
act of creation. This 55-foot hemispheric screen contains
4,750 square feet of digital canvas that fills viewersÕ
entire field of vision as they lean back in parallel
with the 25-degree tilted dome. Although the LodeStar
Dome was originally developed with the purpose of
functioning as an astronomy planetarium, there is
increasing interest in using this environment as a
venue for producing and viewing works of art.
To
create this piece, Los Angeles-based artist Gronk
worked with UNM's Arts Technology Center through a
residency program called Cultural Practice/Virtual
Style: Creating an Arts Environment in High Performance
Computing. Gronk's BrainFlame was produced
as a collaboration between Gronk, Los Angeles-based
composer Steven LaPonsie, animator Hue Walker, and
a number of students who worked on the animation through
a program called the Digital Pueblo Project. Although
Gronk had not worked with the media of digital imaging
before this project, he was no stranger to the size
of a planetarium dome. "People are intimidated
by the scope," he commented, "but I've worked
larger. Once you engage in understanding it, you open
up the possibilities.... I have these small images
that are being translated very big. Small lines become
heroic when transposed [into this format]."
GRONK
Like
a growing number of contemporary artists, Gronk has
chosen not to become identified with one medium. Rather,
he has developed an international reputation for a
provocative body of work, which includes painting,
performance, photography, video, installations and,
now, digital media. During the 1970s, he was one of
the founding members of ASCO, an avant-garde multi-media
arts collective in Los Angeles. Gronk later turned
his attention to drawing, painting, and performance
art in collaboration with musicians and performers,
and stage design for institutions such as the Los
Angeles Opera. He is best known for his murals and
his very physical approach to painting. Much of his
recent work has been done either in series or as temporary,
mural-scale, site-specific paintings. Gronk's work
is represented in numerous private and museum collections
across the country including the Corcoran Gallery
of Art (Washington, DC), and the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art. He has been the subject of many one-person
exhibitions at museums, including the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art and the Mexican Museum in San
Francisco.
AINADAMAR
Currently,
Gronk is working with Director Peter Sellars as the
scenic designer for this summer's Santa Fe Opera production
of Ainadamar (The Fountain of Tears), an opera
about the life and death of Federico Garcia Lorca.
Ainadamar: Gronk's Designs for the Opera, an
exhibition of sketches, models, and related materials
from the opera design will be displayed at the National
Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum in Albuquerque
July 9 - October 30. The opera will be presented in
Santa Fe on July 30, August 3, 12, 18, 23, and 26.
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