Living Ind

Everything is Illuminated

Jantje Visscher works in the most elusive medium of all, light.

photo by Angelle-Leigh Breaux

You sit, staring at enlightened forms that come in and out of focus. There’s no beginning and no end. Light meets shadow and has a theoretical conversation about the cosmos. Or they go for a swim in a serene ocean. Jantje Visscher is the highly attuned medium who translates the exchange. She shows but doesn’t tell. Why give it all away? Just enjoy art for art’s sake.

A completely unpretentious exhibit is hard to come by, so feel free to settle in and sort out whatever is on your mind. Good art allows us this freedom. The visuals are constructed with hard, clear plastic that is scoured and fixed to the walls with fishing wire and insect pins. Simple enough, but when the lights hit the wall, you aren’t thinking of a calculator package. Inspirations from nature executed with the man-made bear the interplay of opposites.

The effect is at once transformative and quiet.

Perhaps the best part of the experience is that Visscher doesn’t require you to have one. The true art lies in your reaction or lack thereof. What you are experiencing cannot be described. It must be felt.

Drawings in Light will be on display in the main gallery of the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum until Dec. 31. Also showing is Seeing Ourselves: Masterpieces of American Photography from the George Eastman House Collection and Focus on Faculty_, a rotating exhibit of work produced by UL professors. Call 482-2ART for more information or visit museum.louisiana.edu._