Artist who paints with light uses Conn. as canvas
Everything about selfdescribed “light artist” Kari Kola is original. So it feels wrong to begin and end a column about him with cliches.
Still, he is creating his latest work because 10year-old Chloe Clementina solved her father’s dilemma in trying to bring a winter art exhibit to Stamford’s Mill River Park.
“Wait Dad, you can do this,” she told Community Curator Fernando Luis Alvarez. “You need to get an artist who uses light.”
Yes, a light bulb went off over their heads (there’s that first cliché).
Kola’s creation, “Prelude,” will debut at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25. It’s free to all, but true to the ephemeral spirit of Kola’s art, the window to see it will close to 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28. The path to experience it will begin across from the Hampton Inn, 26 Mill River St.
He says he is striving to “combine different parts of the city to create a different kind of space.” It has the potential to turn the park into a symbolic beacon, a sort of lighthouse on the mainland.
Even those four nights in Stamford are considerably longer than one of his signature works, when he became the first (and only) artist to use Stonehenge as a canvas.
I can’t stifle the thought from leaving my brain: “Who does that?”
“Only me,” he replies wryly.
The overnight illumination of Stonehenge lasted for a mere two hours and 15 minutes, and was seen by only about two dozen people, 15 of whom were part of Kola’s team.
“The next morning 100 million people saw it through the media,” he says.
His philosophy is that limited showings draw larger audiences. Think about it. If you knew you had weeks to catch “Prelude,” you’d probably keep postponing and eventually miss it. So not only is Kola playing with light and sound, but with time itself.
Unlike an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Louvre in Paris, “Prelude” will encourage the audience to exist in the moment. Don’t expect a local production of a Pink Floyd Planetarium show. It will not be frenetic, but meditative, and will transform — not unlike seasons — as the weather shifts from hour to hour and night to night.
Light is our universal speed limit, yet Kola uses it to get us to pump the brakes.
I ask how people should prepare for the experience.
“The best way to prepare is not to prepare,” he teases. “Just come to the site. Let it flow. Use the time there. Don’t just walk through and take selfies.”
Not that he expects anyone to turn off their cameras. He knows that documents of his shows will continue to surface for years to come.
“So, what is time?” He says the four words quickly. I hear them slowly. The title of the Stamford piece, which also incorporates his ambient music, is a promise of more to come. Kola has created works in his native Finland, in Italy, Paris, Prague, Portugal, Istanbul, etc. But this is his first work in the United States. If Northeast winter forecasts weren’t enough of a challenge, he also has to deal for the first time with U.S. electric outlets to power his art.
Nearly a century ago, in 1929, planner Herbert Swan presented “Plan of a Metropolitan Suburb,” which envisioned Mill River Park as a mini Central Park. After generations of obstacles, it finally has that feel, bookended by a carousel, a skating rink, the Whittingham Discovery Center and vibrant seasonal programming. Alvarez was challenged by Mill River Collaborative President Nette Compton to come up with a winter showcase, leading him (with help from Chloe) to Kola. Even Central Park hasn’t done anything like this.
“In a way it’s like a new beginning for the City of Stamford and the arts with Kari’s installation. There are a lot of exciting things coming to the city in the next decade,” Alvarez says.
In short, it’s a prelude. For Compton, in several ways, it’s about time.
“In my mind the end goal is for kids and families to be excited and renewed to see the park as something really special, particularly the memories,” she says. She pauses to consider how global warming shortens winters. “I want kids to have memories of winter when they are grandparents.”
Since Mill River Park is Compton’s office, she has an appreciation for its commonly overlooked winter beauty. When Kola first came to see his canvas in September, of course, it looked nothing like it will during his show. But he did see things locals can easily miss, because sometimes you can’t see the picture when you’re in the frame. For Kola, the river itself divides the City of Stamford. The show is an opportunity to bridge those sides.
Kola says he doesn’t use much in the way of sketches or computer modeling, favoring the sketchbook of the mind.
“You cannot do this with pictures,” he says. ”With pictures you miss the sound. You miss the smell. You miss the atmosphere. What was the sound of the leaves? How does it change? What was the key element of the space? My head works much faster than any computer.”
He’s already done more than 2,000 installations, but Kola aspires for even larger canvases than the ones he has already painted with light. He’s turned the Connemara mountains in Ireland emerald and blue (during the start of the pandemic, no less) and worked in minus-40 degree temperatures. He takes roads not taken because his canvases sometimes lack roads.
“I’m an extreme guy,” he says.
The comment summons that closing cliché. After all that, Mill River over the next few days will be just a walk in the park.
He’s already done more than 2,000 installations, but Kola aspires for even larger canvases than the ones he has already painted with light. He’s turned the Connemara mountains in Ireland emerald and blue (during the start of the pandemic, no less) and worked in minus-40 degree temperatures. He takes roads not taken because his canvases sometimes lack roads.