Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight Exhibition
The Sun Valley Center for the Arts opens its new visual arts exhibition, Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight, on Friday, August 5, at The Center in Ketchum. The Center will host a opening celebration on Aug 5 from 5-7pm, is free to the community and coincides with a free gallery walk on the same evening.
First developed by the British during World War I in response to the introduction of submarine warfare, dazzle camouflage was an innovative marriage of military technology and visual art devised to protect British and American ships from German aggression on the high seas. Dazzle camouflage (often called “razzle dazzle” in the United States) was a system of high-contrast geometric patterning applied to ships as disruptive camouflage. Unlike most camouflage, dazzle was not meant to conceal ships from view through enemy periscopes. Instead, it was intended to create visual confusion that could mask a ship’s direction, speed or size, making it difficult to accurately fire a torpedo.
At a time when artists working in modernist styles were experimenting with sophisticated compositions based on geometric planes of color, many dazzle-camouflaged ships resembled enormous works of modernist art.
“The different roles artists have played during wartime, whether building models of battlefields or designing camouflage, is fascinating and not very well known, said Dr. Courtney Gilbert, Curator of Visual Arts at The Center. “This exhibition offers a glimpse into a moment when artists were really helping shape military technology. And it gives visitors a chance to understand that moment through historical documents as well as contemporary artwork made in response to dazzle.”
The Center’s exhibition features original dazzle diagrams from the collection of the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, and a variety of dazzle-camouflage interpretations by contemporary artists including:
- Large-scale photographs by Thomas Bangsted
- A dazzle-inspired room by Liz Collins
- Paintings by Stuart Elster
- Self-portraits and video by Stephanie Syjuco
- Photographic work by Carrie Schneider
On Thursday, September 1, the exhibition will be enhanced by the opening of Safety Zone: Dazzle Works by Angela Tsai at The Center’s Hailey location. The opening celebration will take place that evening from 5–7pm and is open to the public. Tsai’s dazzle-inspired works will be on view Thursdays, 2–5pm, and by appointment through September 29.
The following events are all associated with the Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight exhibition:
Gallery Exhibition (Ketchum) Aug 5–Oct 14
Opening Celebration (Ketchum) Fri, Aug 5, 5–7pm
Gallery Walks Fri, Aug 5 and Fri, Sep 2, 5–7pm
Evening Exhibition Tours (Ketchum) Thu, Aug 25 and Thu, Sep 15, 5:30pm
Opening Celebration for Safety Zone: Dazzle Works by Angela Tsai (Hailey) Sep 1, 5–7pm
Gallery Exhibition (Hailey) Sep 1–29
Dazzle Camouflage: Hiding in Plain Sight will be on view through October 14, 2016, at The Center in Ketchum. Evening Exhibition Tours are free and open to the public.