The latest experience from the art laboratory on Main Street in El Segundo looks deep into Mirrorworld, a collection of illustrated stories from bestselling children’s author Cornelia Funke, to examine the connection between inspiration and imagination in our high-tech, high-finance, high-art-priced age.
The art experience will run through May 24.
As always, admission is FREE!
Author Funke has already taken Mirrorworld well beyond the page, working with Mirada, a Los Angeles-based studio specializing in advancing the art and science of storytelling, to create the Mirrorworld App, an inspirational source of creativity and thoroughly modern encyclopedia that brings the story collection alive.
SPARK is a different experience all together, playing off Mirrorworld to explore the way we feel inspiration.
Spanning the high-ceilinged space of ESMoA, the “big art”-style installation lies at the crossroads of analog and digital, creating an experience that concentrates the senses while opening windows into the imagination and revealing art as a state of mind integral to our lives.
Amid wall projections of Mirrorworld imagery, visitors follow “islands of creativity” inspired by individual chapters of the story collection and reflective of the elements of the creative process: Inspiration, Imagination, Perception, Collaboration, Craftsmanship, Contemplation and Curiosity:
•“Mirror-Island” considers contemplation and curiosity, anchoring the SPARK art experience with a pond created with a black oval mirror that is set low enough for children to see their reflection.
•“Cornelia-Funke-Island” and “Mirada-Island” reflect upon the diversity of working styles and environments, with a chaotic garden pavilion cluttered with the author’s handwritten manuscripts and a computer workstation integrated with iPads together symbolizing the cooperation that created the Mirrorworld App.
•A small witch-house/green-house occupies “Forest-Island,” its sugarcoated exterior and purple-lit interior revealing adaption and transformation as some of the most powerful sources of imagination, just as Funke created new visions of Mirrorworld from old myths and fairytales.
•“Tavern-Island” riffs on collaboration and imagination, with a tavern-style booth and old table set beneath a cupboard and costumes of a Fox and a Fairy. The island practically inviting visitors to sit, chat, and keep a wary eye over their shoulder.
•The “Goyl-Ogre-Island” is about craftsmanship and perception, with an iron laboratory table displaying a clean acrylic ogre arm and goyl- head atop black figures, offering visitors the opportunity to touch and smell different body parts amid a backdrop of different sounds.
•“Tunnel-Island” symbolizes the in-between phase of coming through a mirror, with imagination on one side and contemplation on the other. Lit by skylights, the only source of natural light in the entire show, the island offers space for visitors to contemplate.
For those seeking more information on artistic collaboration, there will be an art-talk between Funke and Mirada’s Head of Special Projects, Andy Merkin, about Mirrorworld.
ESMoA invites everyone to experience the extraordinary artwork of SPARK, inspired by the childlike fairytale of Mirrorworld as transformed into a comprehensible high-tech product…..and possibly a prototype of the schoolbook of the future.
Mirada is a studio designed for storytellers. Founded by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, executive producer Javier Jimenez and director Mathew Cullen, Mirada is equal parts design studio, visual effects and animation facility, and creative and technology incubator. Mirada opened in 2010 with narrative tradition at its heart and technological innovation as its engine. For additional information on Miranda, visit the website at http://www.mirada.com.
For additional information, visit the ESMoA website at http://www.ESMoA.org or call 424-277-1020.
ESMoA is located at 208 Main Street in El Segundo.
Source: ESMoA Press Release