Exhibit explores how artists shaped military technology

KETCHUM — You’ll be dazzled when you learn artists helped shape military technology.

Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight will be open from 5 to 7 p.m. Aug. 5, at The Center in Ketchum. The opening celebration is free and coincides with a free gallery walk on the same evening.

Dazzle camouflage was an innovative marriage of military technology and visual art devised to protect British and American ships from German aggression on the high seas, says a statement. First developed by the British during World War, I dazzle camouflage — often called “razzle dazzle” in the United States — was a system of high-contrast geometric patterning applied to ships as disruptive camouflage. Unlike most camouflage, dazzle was not meant to conceal ships from view through enemy periscopes. Instead, it was intended to create visual confusion that could mask a ship’s direction, speed or size, making it difficult to accurately fire a torpedo, the statement says.

“The different roles artists have played during wartime, whether building models of battlefields or designing camouflage, is fascinating and not very well-known,” said Courtney Gilbert, curator of visual arts at The Center. “This exhibition offers a glimpse into a moment when artists were really helping shape military technology. And it gives visitors a chance to understand that moment through historical documents as well as contemporary artwork made in response to dazzle.”

The Center’s exhibition features original dazzle diagrams from the collection of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, and a variety of dazzle-camouflage interpretations by contemporary artists including:

Large-scale photographs by Thomas Bangsted

A dazzle-inspired room by Liz Collins

Paintings by Stuart Elster

Self-portraits and video by Stephanie Syjuco

Photographic work by Carrie Schneider

The exhibition Safety Zone: Dazzle Works by Angela Tsai will open Sept. 1 at The Center’s Hailey location. The opening celebration will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 1 and is open to the public. Tsai’s dazzle-inspired works will be on view from 2 to 5 p.m. Thursdays, and by appointment through Sept. 29.

Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight will be on view through Oct. 14, at The Center in Ketchum. For more information, go to sunvalleycenter.org or call 208-726-9491.

(Source : magicvalley.com)

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