The opening reception for our first show of 2013, Message In A Bottle, took place last Friday night! It was an awesome, mystery-filled event that had visitors searching for clues, decoding messages and enjoying a lot of great art!
It was a noticeably thoughtful and intimate event, very quiet compared to previous openings. Upon walking into the gallery, visitors were directed to a cryptic poem which hinted at secrets hidden in the artwork on the walls. If any vistor could discover all the secrets the clues referred to, they were given a free piece of art to hide in their jackets (to keep it from prying eyes) and clue about the first step of solving a bigger mystery (here's another clue).
Many people took to the task with vigor, although it was a tough nut to crack. In all, only 12 people were able to walk out with the secret piece of artwork.
Part of our goal for Message In A Bottle was to slow people down when viewing art, and make them absorb all of the tiny details. So we were happy to see people scrutinizing every inch of the artwork on display, discussing what they found (or didn't!) with their friends.
The small gallery held a collection of work from featured artist Jackey Batey, including her artist book Running A Secret Society No 20. Alongside that we had 19 pieces from Kali Ciesmier's recent MAKE 2013 workshop. Participants of that workshop each created a piece of art which hid a single letter that, when combined, spelled out a secret message.
And if all that wasn't enough, Danny Saathoff had an amazing interactive piece where each visitor pulled coordinates from a bottle, and left color-coded fingerprints. When filled in completely, it will reveal a hidden... message? Picture? We don't even know, so we're as excited as anyone to see the final result!
You can see how it looked after the opening, it's getting there but there's still more to go! Stop into the gallery to add your mark and finally reveal the hidden message!
If you want to see all the artwork from the show, visit our online store to view or buy any of the amazing work! You can also see all the pictures from the opening in our Message In A Bottle flickr set!
Also, all the artwork will be archived in our visit our online gallery!