Santa Monica’s Glow Festival set to illuminate beachside from dusk to dawn
The Santa Monica Glow Festival 2010 will showcase interactive beach landscape art on Saturday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. The exhibits around the pier will include art installations from UCLA alumni Joshua Howell and Aaron Zeligs, who will combine black lights, helium balloons and photoluminescence.(Photo courtesy of Bill Short)
By Amber Eyerman
Sept. 24, 2010 1:17 a.m.
While most all-nighters this year will consist of endless hours spent cramming in Powell, illuminated by the glow of the computer screen, one exception is in order as the quarter begins.
Santa Monica’s Glow Festival 2010, Saturday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., is a dusk-to-dawn cultural event that captures the essence of the beach landscape with interactive, temporary art installations.
The festival began in 2008 and was modeled on a trend in art projects that took hold throughout Europe, starting in Paris with an art festival titled Nuit Blanche, which is slang for “all-nighter” in French.
“We’re really known for cutting-edge art and artists, and we have this unique natural setting which is the beach, so all of that came together to do Glow,” said Jessica Cusick, cultural affairs manager for the City of Santa Monica. “And interestingly enough, we’re still the only event in the United States of this kind which commissions all original artwork.”
Twenty commissioned installations will permeate the spans of Santa Monica beach, pier and Palisades Park.
“The artist selection process is quite elaborate,” Cusick said.
“We do a three-tiered selection process: through a curatorial committee, an open call, and through something we call the Glow network, which are partnered arts organizations.”
The event will feature artists Joshua Howell and Aaron Zeligs, two UCLA alumni who have created a project titled “Soft Underbelly” in the Palisades Park area.
“I think the whole philosophy behind the Glow festival was really interesting to us ““ this kind of whole entire night of art,” Zeligs said.
According to Howell, the art installations of Glow are a far cry from those seen in a gallery setting, with a little less practicality and a strong focus on sensations and exploration.
“There’s something very interesting about doing installations that are actually susceptible to the environmental conditions and are not just in a pure gallery setting where they will remain untouched,” Zelig said.
The piece the duo created for the festival combines the use of black lights, helium balloons and the element of photoluminescence, all enwrapped into a floating canopy that will suspend from a cluster of palm trees.
According to Zeligs, the inspiration for the piece came from the ocean waters that Santa Monica borders, and, more specifically, the weightlessness and pulsating movement of jellyfish throughout these ocean waters.
“I think the challenge for us is that we’re going to create this art piece, and it’s going to have a delicacy to it that’s intentional, but it also has to put up with potentially 200,000 people who are going to see it in a span of a few hours,” Howell said. “But that’s the excitement about doing a public piece.”
Most of the installations at the festival will be a variation of either an acoustic music performance or a digitally based piece of art complete with some component that will make it glow in the dark and light the festival. All will depend on those attending to engage with the pieces.
“One of the really amazing things about Glow is that it’s an opportunity to rethink the city and see it through the eyes and minds of artists in a new way,” Cusick said. “You can roam around on the beach or under the pier and through Palisades Park while having these amazing art experiences that are mediated by these exciting artists.”
