Flying School by Diane Landry

Around here we're having a drought, even though all it did all weekend was rain. Everytime I used my new umbrella (with a handy rectractable button -- got it on my last trip at Brookstone at the Cincinnati airport), I thought of the Flying School (Ãcole d'aviation) installation by artist Diane Landry. We saw this at the gorgeous Rice University in Houston last fall, but I never got around to posting it. Probably because Russ took so many great photos, it was hard to choose.

The umbrellas are all on Landry's mechanical contraptions with hand-made bellows that breathe air in and out -- raising and lowering the umbrellas. Constantly moving at different rates, the bellows make sighing-singing noises, and the umbrellas slide up and down, open and close in sort of a solemn dance. How wonderful to take such a common place thing as an umbrella and make it into art!

And to someone like me who uses commercially printed fabrics in my art, I cannot but help to appreciate the wonderful array of umbrella patterns that Landry has assembled.

As they move up and down, the umbrellas which are lit from below, casting ever-changing star-shaped patterns on the ceiling of the gallery, and so beautiful to watch!

In the next room there was the Mandala Naya, an amazing contraption that moved a light bulb in and out of a plastic laundry basket surround by empty water bottles. The moving light created an ever-changing performance of light on the wall.

That night R went to an art performance by Landry, and I went to the QA reception at the International Quilt Festival. I still wish I had gone to the performance also!