INTERACTION/IMMERSION
October 5 – October 27, 2012:
Kellaway Center, 461 Main St., Pawtucket, RI
opening reception: Friday, October 5, 7–10pm 
w/ special performance, Systemisch, by Matt Underwood at 8pm

open exhibition hours: Thursdays 5-8pm, Fridays 12-4pm, Saturdays 12-4pm, or by appointment.

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Independent curators Allison Paschke, RK Projects, and Lynne Harlow are pleased to announce Interaction/Immersion, a new exhibition of twelve installations featuring the work of Mark Cetilia, Kelly Egan, Nestor Armando Gil, Andrew Lloyd Goodman, Emma Hogarth, Graham Heffernan, Paul Myoda, Allison Paschke, Stefanie Pender, Keith Allyn Spencer, Naho Taruishi, and Matt Underwood. The exhibition focuses on work that moves beyond a traditional separation between object and viewer to create immersive and interactive experiences: the sensorial and subliminal supersede the verbal and intellectual.

The site is a 10,000 square foot vacant industrial building in Pawtucket RI -formerly the oldest continually operating nuts and bolts plant in the United States. The building’s interior, with its enormous central area pierced by skylights and flanked by balconies, resembles a cathedral or theater. The interior surfaces are primarily wood and concrete. While the feel is raw and gritty, the interior is more complex than many similar, Providence area, industrial sites.

The layout of the show is modeled on that of a Japanese tea garden. Participants move from one direct sensory experience to another. Selected pathways are constricted so that participants must meander through or crunch across spreading floor pieces. In order to accommodate five high-tech, darkness-dependent projects, half of the entire space is dimmed, creating an immersive experience in and of itself. The openness of the floor plan results in images, movement, and sound contributing subliminally to each other. Three small side-rooms house other dark and high-tech projects, while a large teahouse-like structure in the center of the exhibition serves as a place of contemplation.