- JG
- Where once there was Chutney's, now there is Velazquez sponsored by Rejuvenation Lighting. The artist is Jennifer Zwick.
You can see Jennifer Zwick's Lamps Meninas at 605 15th Ave E.
A painting more likable is virtually unimaginable. Velazquez's Las Meninas (1656) has everything: a 5-year-old girl already engaged to the Holy Roman Emperor, a painting hiding in plain sight within the painting as the artist works on it, a royal couple reflected in the mirror on the far wall so that the viewer is implied to be the king and queen, a dwarf, a midget, a dog, a bodyguard, and sightlines extending in every direction.
- The least flat flat surface possible, extending into the far distance in front of you and also extending out to envelop you into it—a perfect working-out of the most basic and eternal artistic puzzles.
Now there's Lamps Meninas, a version made of lighting fixtures that you can see day and night in the empty building where Chutney's used to be on 15th, thanks to Storefronts Seattle. Jennifer Zwick created it using a found lamps for the dog and fancy lamps from the store Rejuvenation for all the other figures. On the back wall of the storefront window, Zwick posted a copy of the painting, sitting in the spot where Velazquez placed the king and queen in the mirror. Because of the way they're positioned, the entire painting is seen from their point of view. Royal-vision. Lamps Meninas has Las Meninas-vision.
Zwick posted three labels in the window. (The recycled wood on the exterior is an installation by another artist that remains intact while others cycle through inside.) One is a standard art label, describing the painting and its role in art history. The other two are legends with QR codes: One links to 14 different version of Las Meninas by other artists, from Picasso to Akio Takamori, and the other links to the Rejuvenation Lighting catalog that describes the products doubling as the characters.
Five-year-old Infanta Margarita, for instance, is represented by Rejuvenation's "large, refined" Alexandra B62010 pendant light ($510): "with a stoic sensibility, perfect for flaunting curvaceous Classical Revival shades and larger globes" in a style that "mimic[s] the ideals of ancient Greek and Roman architecture." The German dwarf is the Colonial Revival single-chain pendant Fern Hill B1089 ($260). The Italian midget: Lone Rock Clamp-on Table Lamp B8893 ($460, current sale price $368).
- This is what an artist looks like: Velazquez himself is Rejuvenation's Industrial Cloth-Cord Pendant the Burnside C4815. Rejuvenation's online catalog says, "Corded pendants toe the line between industrial and modern design."
See more recommended art shows right here.
