HOLOGRAMS AS ART

Viewers may walk on the life-size images of people trapped beneath the floor.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
OLOGRAMS FIGURE PROMI-nently in two exhibits coming to the Butler Institute of American Art this month.
"Holography is a significant art form that has been overlooked for too long. For that reason, we think it's important that we're bringing these exhibits here," said Dr. Louis A. Zona, executive director of the Butler.
The work of internationally renowned Taiwanese artist Shu-Min Lin will be on display at the museum today through Aug. 15.
His installation work, "Glass Ceiling," which will be included in the Butler show, was presented in 2001 at the Venice Biennale.
The exhibit features a platform embedded with a mixture of glossy black floor tiles and holographic images of faces beneath glass, which form a chessboard pattern.
Museum patrons may wipe their feet on the rug surrounding the exhibit, and then step onto the platform to view, and walk on, the various 3-dimensional images of life-size people seemingly trapped beneath the floor.
All the faces look upward at onlookers, some appearing to be trying to escape, others appearing complacent, puzzled, happy or angry.
Lin says on his Web site, www.shuminlin.com, "'Glass Ceiling' can be thought of as a search for order -- for some kind of sense in the compartmentalized, frantic and desperate spaces we inhabit."
New approach
Other works by Lin will include "Scattering the Ashes," a pile of broken glass and mirror fragments with holographic images on several large shards; a collection of vases with holograms in the mouths; and hologram wall hangings.
Lin, an assistant professor of fine art and visual communication at New York Institute of Technology, developed a new approach to holographics in which he animates images and at the same time involves the viewer's eyes to combine and select the images to be viewed.
Images appear and then disappear as the viewer moves. Traditional holographic technique can only project a single, static image.
Lin's holographic art has been exhibited in venues worldwide, including the Taiwan Fine Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the Alternative Museum in New York, the Rauma Art Museum in Finland, the National Gallery in Australia and the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.
He has been awarded the Prize for Artistic Excellence in 1995 and 1997 at ARTEC -- the International Biennale Competition and Exhibition in Japan.
Pepper exhibit
An exhibit by London-based technology artist Andrew Pepper will be on display at the Butler May 25 through Oct. 31. This installation features work that combines holograms with other digitally created images.
After studying fine art in England, Pepper spent two years at the Museum of Holography in New York as a Fulbright scholar, and it was there that he learned how to make holograms at New York Holographic Labs.
Pepper also founded the Creative Holography Index, The International Catalogue for Holography, a reference work that provides information about artists working in the medium, as well as leading writers' views on the development of the field.
Pepper's exhibit will replace a long-standing exhibit of holographic stereograms by London artist Partick Boyd. The Butler's permanent collection also includes works of local holographic artist Tom Cvetkovich.
A reception to honor Pepper is planned for May 25 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Butler.
Holograms were first invented in 1947 when Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor was trying to improve the resolution of an electron microscope.
Zona said what started as a scientific curiosity has evolved into an important art form.
"Science and art are at opposite ends of the spectrum," he said, "so it's pretty amazing when artists do this."
Holograms were perfected in 1960 when the laser was invented. The laser could provide a single wavelength of coherent, pure light that is ideal for making holograms, unlike natural light or light bulbs.
To create a hologram, a pattern of information is recorded on light-sensitive film with a laser. When light passes through this pattern, a three-dimensional image is formed.
Lighting is key when viewing holographic images, so the museum has installed track lighting with halogen lights to focus thin beams of light on the exhibits.