When you experience one of Mary Temple’s Light Installations you will look over your shoulder for the large trees that you somehow missed. Afterwards, all shadows cast from shafts of light will be suspect.
Temple’s ceramic mosaic on the Q line at Neck Road Station quietly and slowly demands that one reevaluate one’s surroundings. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority commissioned West Wall, East Light, Morning in 2011 through its Arts for Transit project. An observant commuter will notice a subtle shard of light and tree silhouettes illuminating the wall next to them as they use the stairs leading to the southbound platform. The wall on the platform itself is bathed in a soft canopy of light and shade from non-existent trees. On closer inspection the viewer discovers that the tiles are hand-painted in ceramic glazes. The subtle, complicated tile work was painstakingly created by the artisans at Mosaika, an art mosaic fabricator located in Montreal, Canada.
This slow reveal of the image was designed by the artist to be discovered over time and on repeated viewing. Commuters slowly realize that something isn’t quite right and then have the strange experience of perpetual morning light. As Temple reminds us, Henry David Thoreau said: “Vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning”.
Primarily known for her trompe l’oeil installations, Mary Temple’s cross-discipline conceptual artworks blur boundaries between painting, sculpture, and drawing. Informational spin, false documents, and verisimilitude all play important roles in Temple’s practice.
Temple, who was born in Arizona and now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, has exhibited her work throughout the US and abroad. The artist has completed commissioned projects at venues that include, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; SculptureCenter, Queens, NY; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA; Sculpture Center, LIC, NY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, Rice Gallery, Houston, Western Bridge, Seattle, WA; The Drawing Center, NY, among many others.
Amy Albracht is the General Editor at CFile.
above: Mary Temple, West Wall, East Light, Morning, Neck Road Station, Q subway train, New York City, NY. Images courtesy of Mary Temple. Photography by Etienne Frossard
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