Starr Gallery’s Anna Shapiro

Helps Produce Sept. 21 iKatun Installation “Paradise”

 

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

 

BOSTON - In their latest interactive, artistically-engineered presentation, the iKatun Collective of artists and technologists presents “Paradise” at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Leland Center from Sept. 18–25. The opening reception for the installation will be Sept. 21 at 6 p.m. at the Mills Gallery, located at 539 Tremont St., Boston.

 

iKatun’s Paradise is based on Dante’s Paradise from the Divine Comedy. “However,” says  iKatun co-founder Catherine D’Ignazio, “It’s not about perfect morality but about perfect information. iKatun’s Paradise alludes to a faultless model of information to which all media systems aspire and a space where entropy does not exist. Visitors to the Paradise installation walk through labyrinths of white fabric and minimalist soundscapes to reach a large grid of LED lights controlled by a computer program.”

 

Instrumental in the creation of this impressive LED (light emission diode) board, where patterns change and evolve based on the visitor’s voice, was  Anna Shapiro, the Assistant Director of the Leventhal-Sidman JCC’s Starr Gallery. Shapiro has been a creative consultant to iKatun since its inception. “As an installation artist myself,” she explains, “I’ve been helping with the development of the creation of these immersive exhibits. In this one, the viewer becomes part of the active element.”

 

The production, a collaboration of 10 local artists, programmers and engineers, will be presented in conjunction with the South End Open Studios weekend and other exhibits at the Mills Gallery and the Cyclorama. Shapiro will be at the opening and at much of its run.

 

The Starr Gallery, which is open to all ages, supports and showcases Jewish art and artists in its educational and informative portrayals of Jewish culture and identity. Shapiro helped write the text for the Starr’s self-directed guide “Curating Kids”, which is customized to each individual exhibit in both Hebrew and English. She helps curate the gallery’s shows, contacts artists and coordinates volunteers. “We’re an intrinsic part of the cultural arts department at the JCC,” she says. “Often JCC theater productions are selected to complement ongoing Starr exhibits. For example, a Jan.-March 2003 show on immigration will be augmented a number of plays at the theater on the immigration experience.”

 

Upcoming Starr events include a Sept. 25 Special Kids’ Tea with Sholem Aleichem stories read by actress Naava Piatka at 3:30 p.m., and an Oct. 16 talk at 3:30 p.m. with Russian art collector Boris Fridman on the work of Grigory Inger which will be sponsored by the Mass. Cultural Council in cooperation with the Joint Action Committee for the Russian Speaking Community.

 

A NYC native, Shapiro studied Judaica at Chicago’s Spertus College, and took Women in Judaism coursework at Tufts University. As a change from the high-tech atmosphere of much of her installation work, she is spending the High Holidays with my family at Temple Beth El in Bangor, Maine, “because the family also enjoys praying in an environment of great beauty as contrasted to the hustle and bustle of New York City.”

 

iKatun, located at 21 Symphony Rd. in Boston and co-founded in 2000 by D’Ignazio and Savic Rasovic, creates multimedia, installation, and performance artworks in physical space and cyberspace. “Paradise” will be open to the public at the Leland Center, 541 Tremont St., Boston, 617-426-5000, from Sept. 18–26. Weekdays hours are 12-5 p.m.; Sept. 21, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sept. 22, noon-6 p.m.

For further information, contact D'Ignazio by calling 617-501-2441, emailing kanarinka@ikatun.com or visiting http://www.ikatun.com.

 

For information on the Starr Gallery at the Leventhal-Sidman JCC, 333 Nahanton St., Newton Center, please call 617-558-6JCC (6522) or fax 617-244-8290.