The Spaces Between
Three artists bring their conceptual visions to downtown alleyways
For this year’s Arts Issue, WILMA asked three local artists to study downtown Wilmington alleys and see them in a new way. They each envisioned concepts for an experiential, site-specific downtown arts installation and beautification project and made it their own.
Local artists FRITZI HUBER, GREY PASCAL, and MARIA BORGHOFF set out to plan a few miraculous transformations.
Artists conceptualized an installation in a downtown alley of their choice. The idea is to take an ordinary space and make it an exceptional experience.
Alleyways have practical purposes just like any road – they lead somewhere, offering shortcuts from one street to another, or house communities, providing a space for entryways to homes and backdoors to businesses.
But they’re also intimate passageways with more character than the average street. Often found in downtown areas between old buildings, alleys can serve as living remnants of history. Even so, they can be overlooked.
The goal of this project is for the artists to explore possibilities of using the space to create something stunning that would encourage regular passersby to stop and see these pathways with fresh eyes. Here are the artists and their innovations.
Monarch Migration
Artist: Fritzi Huber
Alley Description: Down Chestnut Street towards the Cape Fear River, a small alley that is more of a tunnel that opens at the end
Art was a way of life for the young Fritzi Huber.
Growing up in a circus family meant constantly creating on the road – designing costumes, riggings, and acts. Eventually Huber decided to leave performance art and made the transition to visual art.
Handmade paper is Huber’s preferred medium. She’s been working with it for over thirty-five years.
“For me it is an alternative to canvas as a working surface,” she says.
Can you explain your concept for the project?
“This time of year I’m always looking for monarchs on their way South for the winter. We have fewer every year for a variety of reasons, one of which is a dwindling supply of milkweed, which they absolutely need to survive.
We see them at the ocean’s edge as well as inland. I would like to have the shadows of butterflies tracing the exterior walls, going through the tunnel-like corridor, and spilling into the open space of a courtyard at the other end, becoming shadows overhead.
In the ‘courtyard’ there would be beds of milkweed with larger silhouettes of butterflies suspended over them, which would cast actual shadows on the beds of plants throughout the entire year.
During the migratory season real monarchs would find the milkweed and visit. It would be a sort of an open and free butterfly house, with reminders of their passage once they’ve departed.”
What’s the story behind why you chose your particular alleyway?
“I was taken by its inherent secrecy – a bright sidewalk descending into the dark of the lower parking deck, with a recess not marked in any way.”
What inspired you to recreate it in the way you’ve decided to?
“Seeing the monarchs at the water’s edge and wondering who else might be paying attention to how few there seemed to be.”
Have you done large installation pieces before?
“Growing up with aerialists, every show was acting within an installation. I’ve done suspended installations before, but usually work in a 2-D format, some bas-relief as well.
How do you imagine people interacting with your designed alley?
“I see people noticing the shadow graffiti, perhaps/hopefully following it to see what is inside the tunnel space. Then, finding the surprise of light, a real garden and real butterflies at the end of their investigation. During the season of hibernation, the garden and the light would still be there, and the shadowy reminders of what is to come – transformation.”
In the Stars
Artist: Grey Pascal
Location: An alley between Chestnut and Grace streets
Grey Pascal was born in Eastern North Carolina. Ten years ago, he traveled to Wilmington to visit a friend, and he’s been rooted in the Port City ever since.
Pascal has always had the desire to make big things. He remembers creating temporary structures and installations as a child.
“My work is primarily large-scale, non-representational sculpture and installation made of found objects,” he says.
In a close-up look at Pascal’s work, you’ll find large collections of everyday things: thousands of eyeglass lenses, packing peanuts, filmstrips, balloons, or newspapers.
Can you explain your concept for the project?
“My concept is designed to stop people in their tracks. I want people to wonder what the installation is.”
Does this reflect what you’ve conceptualized for the installation of your chosen alleyway, or, after more thought, did you decide to do something completely different from your first impression of an alley?
“The word portal completely captures my concept for the alley installation. I knew instantly what I wanted to do for this installation and have kept to the initial idea. I’ve been refining this idea over the last several years.
I will be creating brightly colored portals or passageways that will seem to float between the walls and near the rooftops. When lit, they resemble stained glass windows, and in a way, serve a similar purpose.
They are meant to inspire and to instill awe. I love downtown, but one thing I have always missed is being able to see the stars very well from downtown.
The installation will look nothing like stars but is intended to make people pause, look up at the sky, and to feel wonder – much like stars do.
The main materials used will be PVC pipes, trash bags, and paint.”
What inspired you to recreate it in the way you’ve decided to?
“Trash bags and PVC pipes are not what people associate with beauty and awe. I enjoy challenging that notion.
It sometimes takes me a long time to figure out how to manipulate a material to my satisfaction, which is true in this case. It is only recently that I was finally able to achieve the final effect for which I was reaching. I can’t wait to take this idea that at last has the mechanics resolved and turn it into a vibrant work of art.”
How do you imagine people interacting with your designed alley?
“I imagine people stopping, standing, gazing up. I hope people will stop abruptly as they turn the corner and see it for the first time. I want to remind people that celestial beauty exists everywhere and maybe give them a moment or two in a dark place where they can actually believe that is true.”
One-Point Perspective
Artist: Maria Borghoff
Location: An alley beside Port City Java on Front Street, between Market and Princess streets
Maria Borghoff grew up in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, moved to the mountains to study studio art at Appalachian State University, and, though she always imagined leaving the state, as of last year, she has found a unique and suitable niche on the coast.
She teaches art classes and yoga classes separately, but where she has really come into her own is in finding a happy marriage of the two in the classroom. Yogic philosophy influences Borghoff’s own work as well.
Borghoff doesn’t have one preferred medium, but most recently she’s been playing with handmade paper.
Can you explain your concept for the project?
“For this project, I want to create a magnetizing draw into the narrow and confined space. I plan to do this by using high-contrasting colors and rich and intricate textures. I also plan to create unique and unexpected forms on the walls of the alley that reflect the same lines of perspective found in wide city streets, as well as cobblestone textural referencing climbing up the vertical walls.
My intention is that it will feel like an abstracted expansion of the city streets opening up the narrowness of the alley space.”
Does this reflect what you’ve conceptualized for the installation of your chosen alleyway, or, after more thought, did you decide to do something completely different from your first impression of an alley?
“I think I used this first impression to create a baseboard for my concept of the installation. From these first associations of an alley, I want to expand them into broader terms. My plan will take this feeling of confinement and highlight it by juxtaposing it with a feeling of expansion. It will take this sense of darkness and sharpness and contrast it with a feeling of lightness and softening.”
What’s the story behind why you chose your particular alleyway?
“This alleyway is not a particularly appealing one. But the walls are white without too many windows or openings. It is in a central location, and it really provides a great shortcut between two main streets.
I also really loved the stimulating sound environment that is already occurring in this alleyway with multiple AC/heating units and other units hanging off the sides of the buildings, dripping, making noises, interacting both with the outside street noise and with the quiet emptiness of the alley itself.”
What inspired you to recreate it in the way you’ve decided to?
“My plans are inspired by seemingly endless lines of perspective that city streets offer the eye. This true feeling of expansion – I want to bring that into this small, seemingly condensing space.”
How do you imagine people interacting with your designed alley?
“I see pedestrians walking by the alleyway entrance, going about their day, looking at the shops, getting coffee, walking to work, and stopping to peek their heads in the alley.
They are not sure what they are looking at, with the sculptural paper forms combined with the geometrical lines and shapes, so they enter into the alley for a closer look. They end up spending more time in the environment of the alley than they planned and they have a whole new experience of the spatial relationships of an alley and a street sidewalk.
Maybe they even wander to the other side and explore where this new path might lead!”
To view more of photographer Erik Maasch’s work, go to websta.me/n/emaasch
