Linda Law, the executive director of the HoloCenter at 518 Broadway in Kingston, N.Y., stands in front of a hologram by artist August Muth. (Tania Barricklo/Daily Freeman)
KINGSTON, N.Y. — The HoloCenter at 518 Broadway in Midtown seeks to celebrate and exhibit holograms created using a wide range of methods.
The art museum’s current exhibition, “Irridesence,” running through Feb. 18, features works by holographic artists from all over the world including Michael Bleyenberg, Lana Blum, Philippe Boissonnet, Patrick Boyd, Betsy Connors, Pascal Gauchet, Setsuko Ishii, Sam Moree, August Muth, Ray Park and Fred Unterseher.
The featured artists work with a wide variety of mediums to create their holograms, Linda Law, the museum’s executive director, said.
Holograms are more interactive than two-dimensional works, Law said. As visitors walk past or move forward or backward from a piece, a three-dimensional image changes or even appears and disappears altogether.
“Holograms are meant to be played with,” Law said.
Law pointed to a “reflection hologram” by August Muth that offers visitors a colorful 180-degree field of view as they move around the work.
Muth, who serves on the Holocenter’s board of directors, records them on hand-coated glass with dichromate emulsion gelatin, Law said. “It’s very sensitive to humidity, you have to seal them well,” she added.
She said Muth’s works continue to grow in size as he perfects the process.
Law said the lighting must be just right for each hologram. She added they’ve found a specific type of LED track light that gives the best effect for audiences.
Another work by the late artist Fred Unterseher depicts multiple overlapping images of a nude woman using a pulse portrait process using a laser.
Across the exhibition space, South Korean artist Ray Park’s vase features a holographic image in glass. “It can hold water,” Law noted.
Law showed Lana Blum’s hologram featuring an image of a ballet dancer overlayed on a green three-dimensional background that looks like a forest made up of trees plucked from a 1990s 3D platform video game.
The image of the dancer was captured using a laser scanner, and the background was rendered in tiny pieces pixel by pixel in a painstaking, time-consuming process made more difficult by the limits on computer processing at the time, Law said.
It’s monochromatic because that’s all the tech at the time could handle, she said.
She said this technology ended up being used by the military in the Afghanistan War to create topographic maps that were more intuitive to troops than traditional topographic maps.
Next over is Betsy Connor’s hologram mosaic “Light Reef.” “It’s a commentary on the bleaching of coral,” Law said.
Law said when people started making holograms in the 1960s, the only material was a special silver-halide film made out of the same material Kodak used for photography film, only with finer grain.
Law said later on her mentor Ken Haines created a process in the 1980s that didn’t need silver halide, but that holographic process was adopted by the banking industry and governments for security on everything from driver licenses to credit cards and cash.
But as a result, that process became highly secretive and not available to artists. Holographic artists were then dealt another blow when the demand for silver halide dried up as photography shifted to digital and Kodak and Furji stopped production.
She said the Shearwater Foundation bought up the silver halide and gave it to artists who asked for it. But then, as a result, there was no material for schools or any kind of production or commercial use by artists.
“Holographic art went through a terrible period during the last 20 years,” she said.
But things have started to improve in the last few years with new material such as Covestra that allows for self-developing work known as photopolymer.
She said even silver halide has returned, but it’s only produced in France and England on glass and is expensive even before import duties.
Law said technological advances in laser technology have helped today’s holographic artists in creating their works. She noted a 50 milliwatt laser in the 1980s was several feet long, had a massive power supply and cost $40,000. She added that a modern laser with similar power now costs about $2,000 and is about the size of a smartphone.
This has inspired a new generation of artists at a time when many of the pioneering artists and scientists of holography are dying off, Law said.
“More and more artists are contacting me saying they want to do it, but they need the material and access, and that’s what we’re doing with the Holocenter,” she said.
Law said she took over the museum three years ago under the stipulation that it would move to Kingston. Holocenter has a five-year lease on the space, she added.
Law has lived in the area since 2002.
“I’ve witnessed the change going on in Kingston, and I felt it was the right place to be,” she said.
On top of exhibitions, the museum plans to host lectures including a talk with artist Sam Moree, whose works are featured in the present exhibition on Jan. 20, at 2 p.m.
Law said shows featuring spatial music inspired by holograms are also in the cards.
The museum also has a full slate of adult classes on Zoom planned.
She said they hope to use a 2,500-square-foot basement space to host artists in residence who will be on-site making holograms in labs for both the photo-polymer and dichromate processes.
Law said she wants education for youth to be a big part of the museum’s mission and she’s already working on partnerships with the Center for Creative Education, the Boys and Girls Club and MyKingstonKids which would allow children to come to visit the museum and make photopolymer holograms, possibly as soon as this spring.
The unique way holography blurs the lines between art, science, technology and physics makes the HoloCenter an ideal spot for student programs, Law said.
“This can open a doorway into computer graphics and animation,” she said.
Law said she sees a bright future for holography, which may include a new generation of 3D displays, allowing immersive experiences to be shared with others minus clunky goggles.
While HoloCenter has sponsorships by Hugues Souparis’ Enowe Foundation and the Phase Holography Institute, founded by James Trolinger and the International Holography Manufacturers Association, it continues to seek donations as it looks to expand programming and create basement labs, she said.
The Holocenter is open Friday to Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m., and by appointment Monday to Thursday.
For more information visit holocenter.org.
Editor’s note: This story was amended to correct the spelling of James Trolinger’s last name.
