UNSEEN models and process work in Artist Chantal Calato’s NYC studio.
Typically the visual is at the forefront of my creations as an artist, but UNSEEN turned everything on its head for me. Given the scope of this project along with the fact that it is deeply personal, it took me quite a long time to land on a visual design for UNSEEN.
When creating sometimes ideas come almost instantly with very little thought while other times the ideas need time to evolve and shape shift while I figure out what is at the core of what I’m trying to say.
But now that I’ve landed on a design and it is near completion, I thought it would be fun to go back through the process and share what I went through to get where I am.
Welcome to my brain - Here are all (most of)
the designs Un-seen
Design 1
I had no venue, no deadline, no funding. I just knew I wanted to create something that spoke to how people are affected by toxic waste in their homes. I was thinking about the deterioration of the human body. I had it in my head that this was going to be a series of sculptures made from various fabrics layered and dripping from frames. I made a few tests. None of these exist anymore. I accidentally vacuumed one up… and one crumbled it was so brittle. But that’s not why I didn't continue, this idea lacked depth and was not addressing the real reason I was creating the work.
Design 1
Design 2
I drastically shifted my point of view here.This is where I realized people’s stories were the most important part, and that homes were really important too.
Below is a model with 22 houses suspended in two lines referencing the shape of the original homes lining Love Canal. 22 thousand tons of waste were buried in Love Canal so the number of houses referenced that. So what about these stories? This is where it got way too complicated. I was going to project little films on each house that were triggered by a sensor when you approached it. You would see a different movie of someone’s life describing their story on each house. Too many technical challenges that were not worth it because the idea was not focused. And still no venue, deadlines or funding… needed to move on from this.
Design 2
Design 2.5
Throw projection of Niagara Falls video across all the houses. This was actually quite beautiful in my tests, and may have a place in my world some day but not for this project.
Design 2.5
Design 3
Phones. Oh, where did they come from? I am not sure I can remember exactly. But if I had to guess phones create both a domestic and intimate experience. They were to be mounted to a glass wall with video projection of the falls behind. You could pick up a phone and hear someone’s story. In theory this idea seemed amazing. Then I visited the New Museum in NYC and there was a phone on a pedestal with a sign to dial a number to hear a poem. It was a Vitto Acconci work of art who I admired and had written a paper on in college. But when I lifted the phone and dialed, the volume of the poem was so faint among the other ambient noise in the museum I knew instantly this would not work for Unseen. The stories needed more presence.
Design 3
Design 3
Design 4
This is when I thought I had nailed it. This design consisted of two “L” shaped wall structures with close up video projection of the brink of Niagara Falls that wrapped around the inside of each. And within the space a soundscape of people’s voices would play telling their stories. The simplicity of this design was the closest to what UNSEEN needed to be. This design contrasted the beauty of Niagara Falls with the reality of the people living in this city. I spent some time capturing the falls on video and it was pretty exciting. At this point I was honing in on an exhibition space, but oddly the simplicity of the design in reality created very expensive challenges. This design didn’t make the final cut, but I can definitely see it coming back in a later iteration of my work.
Design 4
Design 5
And finally there was the map idea. I think I was starting to go crazy at this point. This idea was visually stimulating and received lots of oohs and aahs from people I showed it to. But I knew deep down it was not the right idea. It would have been a map of Western New York with marker flags indicating the 800 waste sites that exist in the region. And YES this is shocking and full of eye candy, but again it distracted from what has risen to the top as the most important part of UNSEEN, peoples stories who have been affected by toxic waste in their homes.
Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into my process! Come see UNSEEN’s final design starting April 10, 2020 at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.