Vicki DaSilva is a light graffiti and painting pioneer. Since 1980, she has been making single frame time exposure photographs, at night. Vicki is credited with the term “light graffiti” as well as being the first artist to make deliberate text light graffiti photographs. Vicki was influenced by video and performance artist Joan Jonas and then Richard Serra whom she worked with for ten years. Her work with Jonas and Serra, along with the birth of Hip Hop and the fusion of graffiti with fine art was extremely influential in her art.
Vicki, along with her husband Antonio, use 4 and 8-foot fluorescent bulbs attached to a complex system of tracks and pulleys to create her work. Using a camera that allows a ‘bulb’ setting for an extended time while on a tripod, the light source is directed at the camera and then the camera documents the movement of the light.
Curator Savona Bailey-McClain reached out to Ms. DaSilva to create two site specific interventions along the East River Esplanade and underneath the 12th Avenue viaduct in West Harlem.
North River Arts/Repurpose will occur underneath the 12th Avenue viaduct from 125th Street to 135th Street. The public display and projection will be hosted on Saturday, May 10th in partnership with local restaurants and in time for Frieze.
East River Flows is an intervention co-produced by the Friends of the East River Esplanade. The work will spotlight the East River Esplanade north of Gracie Mansion and 116th Street in East Harlem. Public display is scheduled for later this fall.
WEST HARLEM ART FUND 