Nancy Edelstein

Method Gallery - Solo Show - 2023

Installation Art is an invitation to experience something unique or unfamiliar, an intervention within a space. Everything - the corners, walls and columns - all play a part in activating the piece.

In this exhibit, I’ve brought together a group of materials and objects to support the conversation of light that I’m interested in generating. I’ve featured the band of windows as the primary light source, creating unique window treatments on-site, representing volumes of light reaching out to the floor. Three dimensional aluminum sculptures echo these shapes within.

The site specific photo wall is a history of my own light observations, intended to challenge perception, prompt recognition, and stir memories for others. My goal is to make the unseen light all around us visible, expanding an awareness of our own powers to access the wonder of light.

Materials: vellum paper, industrial tape, balsa wood, colored film, surgical tubing, artists tape, aluminum sculptures, natural light

B6.1A Installation 2022

Pray for Sun

I was very grateful for the opportunity to return for a second autumn residency to North Adams, home of MASS MoCA, with the support of the Assets for Artists program. I planned to create a site-specific installation in a unique, raw space there that had captivated me the year before, with its notable 12 foot tall row of windows on North and South facing walls and its well seasoned concrete and brick structure. My goal was to engage the sun coming through the windows and off the walls by expanding its presence as volumes of light into the three dimensional space. In contrast, I also began to explore the idea of flat planes, holding space and light within the deep window recesses. And for the first time, I included color to expand my usual neutral palette. This already perfect space graciously illuminated all of this as I mined its light and challenged both perception and myself.

Two days before the installation was to be dismantled, I held an open-studio as an artist-in-residence for those interested museum-goers on their way to the exhibitions. Rain was forecasted for the entire week, threatening ideal lighting for the experience of the work. When I was asked to title the installation for a promotional flyer, it became known as ‘Pray for Sun.’ While our prayers were not answered, there was still plenty of light, and many came and engaged in rousing conversations around our universal relationship to light, shadow, space and time. The only view of the sun that day was seen in supplemental slides of the work.

Materials: artist tape, mylar, color gels, seamless paper, vellum, optical filters, painted balsa wood, natural light

Studio Installation
Limelight 2021

In October, 2021, I spent a month engaged in the artist residency program at MASS MoCA. There were no expectations or requirements of me, but many enticing opportunities to explore. Everywhere I looked was exciting; inside the world class museum, outside absorbing the cluster of turn of the century mill buildings which have been restored and re-defined for unique uses, and the other cultural and natural wonders in the region. But primarily I chose to spend my time in my studio, drawn to respond to the inspiration of the extraordinary space and the light that it contained.

This installation employs a variety of materials, some familiar and some unexpected. The extended floor piece reflects light’s presence with crushed limestone from a local North Adams quarry. The vertical column points to the subtle presence of light within the room, creating moving shadows of draped thread lit from behind by the sun. Everything else is primarily tape and paper, all in service of revealing and experiencing the soft and brilliant light, gliding on through the large windows, creeping slowly through the space before it’s gone.

Materials: thread, artists tape, vellum, crushed lime, balsa wood, gloss medium, natural light

THESIS - 2021

The transitory nature of light challenges me to contain it. The space of my work is activated by artifacts of lightʼs presence. Fleeting moments shaped by light landing on walls are frozen and extended into three dimensional expressions on the floor. These shapes are fabricated into linear aluminum volumes. Light streaming inside continues to engage with the shapes over time as they interrupt and cast shadows of their own.

These interactions provoke questions about perception and space. As seasons change, the installation becomes a reference to both past and future moments of light. With the change of the earth’s angle to the sun, the low winter light that had once reached inside the space no longer punctuates the walls. The overhead summer light is all that remains, marking an intense narrow band along the front edge of the floor.

Materials: tape, welded aluminum, spray paint, natural light

Attempts at capturing light led to various mark-making on walls, while mapping its patterns over time. Observance revealed the changing seasons and simple beauty of light’s ongoing response.

Materials: tape, wire, nails, pins, gloss medium, natural light

Flexible mirrored plexi strips weave through the maze of markings of past light, adding layers of shape, reflection and shadow to the composition.

Materials: wire, pins, plexiglass, wood, studio light

Handmade shapes designed to fit the angle of the incoming light. Inserts of reflective colored paper illuminate within. Throughout the day, a light created spectacle.

Materials: balsa wood, vellum, double-sided tape, color papers, natural light

Represented here are concepts for several light installations, presented in scaled down models, envisioning human sized environments activated both by the viewer and the light.

Cut paper slits are backlit with various artficial light sources, revealing an unexpected array of fantastical light patterns, shapes, and fluctuations. Perception is challenged, as the experience of walking through the space becomes one of engagement and participation.

Materials: seamless paper, led light strips, christmas lights, foamcore, light boxes

Imaging through the lens of glass jars, light’s magestic properties are revealed.

Materials: glass bottles and jars, japanese paper screens, light projector