Glen Ellyn artist brings Frida Kahlo light show to Art on theMART
It's a bit of an understatement when Glen Ellyn artist George Berlin says 2021 has been a "big, crazy, whirlwind adventure."
Goodness knows life is interesting when you're friends with Corbett Wall, a former pop star better known in Taiwan as the "Prince of Saxophone."
Berlin accepted Wall's challenge to travel halfway around the world amid the pandemic and spend five months in the mountains of Taiwan on a project to help restore tourism in villages slowly recovering from a 2009 typhoon.
The result was "Tree of Life," a 35-foot-tall light sculpture that celebrates the traditions and heritage of Indigenous people.
The whirlwind continued from there with the prolific Berlin taking on his next project before he even returned home. This time, his friends and family will be able to experience his art on a huge scale.
Berlin designed and animated a Frida Kahlo video show that will be projected onto the 2.5-acre facade of the former Merchandise Mart in Chicago this summer in celebration of a retrospective of her paintings opening Saturday at the College of DuPage.
Berlin used to be a professor at the community college in Glen Ellyn, and he's part of a cadre of local artists given a platform to show their Kahlo-influenced works during the "Frida Kahlo: Timeless" exhibition.
"This project has been such a feat, and there's so many people who have really gone above and beyond to bring this to reality," curator Justin Witte said.
One of those people is Mike Venezia, the author of the "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" books. He contributed his illustrations in a children's area of the exhibition.
Berlin also animated Venezia's children's books for about a decade. He veered into projection art seven years ago, drawn to the idea that he could take an inanimate thing like a building or a car and bring it to life with animation and music. His projections have since been displayed on the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, Romania.
"I'm a pretty tenacious person with the thing that I want to pursue," Berlin said.
He's long pursued an opportunity to be featured in the Art on theMART series, and Kahlo gave him that chance.
The video installation on the side of theMART building facing the Chicago Riverwalk will start with an homage to the mystique around the Mexican artist, who carefully constructed her image in her sense of style and self-portraits.
"We really wanted Frida to have a very triumphant entrance when you first see her," Berlin said. "There's a little mystery in what we designed."
The projections will deconstruct some of her most renowned paintings - including "Self-Portrait with Small Monkey" - and lesser-known works. Far from a slideshow, the digital artwork will tell a story about the "majesty of Frida Kahlo," Berlin said.
The animations are synchronized to "Danzón No. 2," a quintessential Mexican composition performed and recorded by the New Philharmonic, the orchestra based at the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage.
"I feel like the music really fits Frida's personality because it's got a lot of depth to it," Berlin said. "It's very subtle in some places, but it's also very explosive and fiery and passionate in what it does."
The Kahlo portion of the Art on theMART program, shown nightly at 9 and 9:30, will start July 5 - the eve of Kahlo's birthday - and run about five minutes, in addition to animated projections of portraits of President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.
Berlin said he ultimately designed a vibrant light show to catch people's attention and bring Chicago visitors to the exhibition 25 miles away.
"It's great to have a little hometown love for what I do," he said.