Fashion Journalism (News)

Cascade Into a Waterfall of Technicolor at Jen Stark’s New Brooklyn Exhibit

By Renée Kocian

Dive deep into the trippy ocean that is Jen Stark’s mind as you explore the new immersive experience exhibit,Cascade, located at The William Vale in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, N.Y. from Sep. 17 through Oct. 24. The exhibition utilizes psychedelic projections that interactively follow your movement throughout the 6,000 square foot space, as well as 3-D mapped environments, soundscapes and artwork, including both paintings and sculptures, to drown out all your senses in a mind-bending mirage of murals. Starks multicolored and multidimensional dreamland is not brought to life though without the help of highly skilled computer programmers that use her art along with their knowledge of augmented reality and projection mapping to entrap unexpecting visitors deep in the hypnotic waves that are Cascade.

  Before creating this minefield of technicolor graphics, Stark grew up in sunny Miami, FL. Her grandfather, also an artist, taught her watercolor and helped inspire her artistic abilities. After graduating high school, she went on to study at MICA art college in Baltimore, MD. before heading back to the beach side city she called home. Now, Stark lives in L.A. but you can still spot the Miami girl within as the bright colors and pop art of the city have clearly influenced her artistic style. 

  While it may be difficult to tell through Stark’s kaleidoscope of shapes and colors, many of her art pieces are actually inspired by nature and math. “My love of colors comes from its use in nature. It is usually an attractant or repellent: A bright red fruit begging to be eaten, or a dangerous multicolored poison dart frog warning you not to eat it. This dichotomy is very interesting to me. Color is intended to grab your attention and I love playing with these ideas with my work” (Sayej para. 10). Cascade specifically required a lot of mathematical factors to its creation as “it’s more than just optical illusion, but [is] inspired by mathematical pattern systems, like the Fibonacci Sequence and Riemannian geometry” (Sayej para. 5).

  Cascade is unique compared to many other immersive experiences as it allows the viewer to become a part of the art rather just view it from an interesting perspective. Depending on the movement each visitor makes, sound and light effects will change the scenery and ambience. Stark intended this as a way to motivate visitors to walk, run and dance about the exhibit, becoming part of the medium itself.  

  Located at The William Vale in Williamsburg, a popular area known for its art life, the exhibit draws quite the crowd, especially on weekends. While attending this exhibit, I spoke with one of the sales team representatives, Amy. She was able to detail for me the kind of work and installations that had to take place in order to create the exhibit, noting that Stark was extremely involved and present. Installing projectors and floor mapping for interactivity seemed to be some of the more difficult tasks as the cameras involved with the projector must be able to pick up on different movements and remain calibrated simultaneously.

  Once exiting the exhibit area, patrons are then granted a chance to purchase a variety of products that are decorated with the cheerfully bright animations of Starks work. One of the most popular items for sale include the collection of Armitron watches that Stark helped design using her artwork from the Cascade exhibit. There are eight Cascade themed watches on display, available for purchase, all of which combine a contrast of color and unique design features that play with the materials, color and shape of all the watch components including the face, the band, the numbers and even the clock hands.

  Post viewing this exhibit, I had the privilege of sharing a phone call with Jalyn Cox, a product development associate at E Gluck Corporation, the corporation that worked with Stark to physically produce the Cascade themed watches. Cox has a unique perspective on the exhibit as E Gluck Corporation worked closely with Stark to fully understand the Cascade exhibit and produce the best possible content for her. Cox, age 22, felt there was a clear influence of childhood memories in Stark’s work. “Notice the age of the artist, during her youth other artists such as Lisa Frank were very popular. You can feel the same bright and playful energy that comes from Franks work in Starks. The nostalgia of this kind of artwork along with the interactivity supplied by today’s technology is what makes Starks work so amazing, it is inclusive of all ages.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

References

Art: Art installation: Art experience: Immersive exhibition. The William Vale. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.thewilliamvale.com/culture/jen-stark-cascade/. 

Colossal. (2021, September 13). Jen Stark's colorful world comes to life at 'Cascade' in Brooklyn. Colossal. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/09/jen-stark-cascade/. 

Daniels, K. (2021, September 14). Q&A with Jen Stark. The William Vale. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.thewilliamvale.com/journal/cascade-jen-stark/. 

Jen Stark. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.jenstark.com/. 

Sayej, N. (2021, September 22). Jen Stark brings trippy graphics to Brooklyn pop-up. 

Forbes. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadjasayej/2021/09/22/jen-stark-brings-trippy-graphics-to-brooklyn-pop-up/amp/. 

Silver, H. (2021, September 15). LA artist Jen Stark's colourful Armitron watch designs. Wallpaper*. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.wallpaper.com/watches-and-jewellery/armitron-watches-jen-stark. 

Waddoups, R. (2021, September 24). Jen Stark brings her trippy, technicolor dream world to life. SURFACE. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/jen-stark-cascade-william-vale/.