Flux Night 2013

Micah + Whitney Stansell: An Inversion (with sky and land) - my favorite installation of the night. Photo by me, October 2013

I

had been eagerly awaiting Flux Night this year, maybe too much, and so when it came time I invited a friend along and we met up at seven that evening in Castleberry Hill.

 

He was a novice to Flux Night and I had described the event to him as a fantastic night. As it turned out, we were both let down and I felt I had oversold Flux Night to him. It was not bad, but it was not as good as the previous year. It was supposed be a night of the arts and I kept asking myself where was the art was. It was not that we could not find it for the most part (though the SCAD projection installation was poorly marked and we would have totally missed it if someone at the door had not invited us in) as I had a guide and the iPhone app - it was a case of too few installations and performances for the number of streets on which it was taking place.

Photo by me, October 2013

Flux Night had its moments, but they were too few and far between and the crowd of 30,000 grew to a drunken sloppy street party by the time it ended at midnight. I was left to walk alone to the Garnett Street Marta Station and was hassled by a man wanting money to buy a '40.' The man who complained of bad knees that was not much older than I am was one final street performance in a night lacking those. I would have hated to have seen the streets of Castleberry Hill the next morning as they were probably covered in a snowfall of trash. A highlight for me is just being in Castleberry Hill because I love that neighborhood of old brick warehouses converted to galleries, residences, restaurants, bars and other businesses. Walking around and looking at the buildings, going in them and even finding a rooftop view satisfies a part of me so I tried to keep my expectations in check regarding the art. I would not want Flux Night to leave Castleberry Hill, without that neighborhood it would lose some of the appeal for me. So thank you to the residents of that neighborhood that host Flux Night.

Rhoda Weppler + Tevor Mahovsky: Late Night Convenience installation - Highly popular that night. Photo by me, October 2013

This was the high demand exhibit of the night. A long line queued to enter. As we walked past a woman in her early twenties in line demanded of me to know what I was doing. I said walking by, not cutting the line as if she owned the street. People these days are strange and possessive of things that do not belong to them.  I thought the precious person was going scream murder over some perceived infraction.

 

I noticed more digital art this year in the form of projections and video displays. At times I felt as though I was in a nightclub more so than out in the streets. Digital art is not that interesting to me and difficult to engage. The wall projections did make for some interesting juxtapositions with the crowds ignoring them.

 

Wandering and wondering crowds. Where's the art? Damned if I knew either.

This captures the night the best. The crowd seemed more raucous this year, less interested or wowed by the art offerings and more into partying, socializing and lining up for the increased presence of the latest fashion in foods - the food truck. Perhaps they were like me and wondering why the lack of art this year and filled their time as best they could?

 

It seemed that Flux Night was bordering on becoming just another street festival with beer and food trucks. I hope next year there is more emphasis on art again. Though I liked that Flux Night encompassed more of the neighborhood with additional streets so it felt like there was more to explore there needed to be more installations and performances. At times, there were long stretches of nothing but crowds and blank walls. Hopefully a new curator will look at the negatives from this year (and there were many critics of this year's Flux Night) and put more art out there in 2014. I await next year and will hope for better.

Then it was a carnival or like a night at the North Georgia Fair without the rides and corn-dogs. There was a horse drawn piano accompanied by a man on a guitar and the horse had its own bouncer.

The sad clown Puddles came by and I grabbed him for blurry photos.

This quilted mountain rang a bell and shouted at the crowd. It was the right amount of absurdity and I enjoyed that.

Whatever you are thinking is probably correct.

I did not find this art installation listed in my guide.

Other scenes of the art, performers and people.

I thought it was the most visually potent installation of the night. For something as simple as what appear to be sheets of paper strung along cables between two buildings it captured my imagination and the crowd's attention.

 

 

Eventually I plonked down at Bradberry and Haynes Streets with a final beer. The impromptu art scavenger hunt neared an end and as my friend took a photo of me, a passing woman greeted me. The night was a success in terms of my friend and I having a great time, but that was due to our conversations, a few beers and our willingness to hunt down the art or having tried to do that.