Spire Reloaded: Patrick Lichty

Friday, October 10, 2008 - 6:00pm - Saturday, November 8, 2008 - 5:00pm
Spire Reloaded: Patrick Lichty

Opening Friday October 10, 2008 from 6pm-10pm
october 10 - november 8

Also come to a special art opening online at www.secondlife.com in the "I AM COLUMBIA" island showcasing one of Patrick's virtual sculptures. Check web site for details.
"For a long time, I have been fascinated with "obsolete spaces", or places that have fallen into disuse or been destroyed for the same reason. This includes the Hulett Ore Loaders near Cleveland, the Adak Naval base in Alaska, and now the recently dismantled Berwyn Spire. These represent the loss of certain parts of American identity in a society that is obsessed with the "new".

For this series, I documented the piece in the last year of its existence, and also made an interpretation of it in the 3D online world, Second Life. I did this as I feel that the Spire only exists in memory and our cultural databanks now, and I felt that by having a virtual version to contrast with the actual one was a fitting tribute to this iconic piece of Americana."

Patrick Lichty (b. 1962, Akron, Ohio) was born into a family with a long involvement in and support of the arts. His mother, a exhibiting artist of numerous art and craft media, immersed him in textiles, painting, ceramics, print and other techniques during his upbringing. Simultaneously he was also exposed to technology in the form of the emerging genres of electronics, video games, and later personal computing when his parents bought him an Atari 800 computer in 1978. Instead of following the desires of many adolescents of the late 70's in wanting to program the next Pac-Man or Space Invaders, he was interested in drawing and creating music with his personal computer.