Phoenix Lindsay Hall, MFA Photography ‘12, Pays Tribute to Orlando Nightclub Victims
On June 12, 2016, tragedy struck at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando when a gunman stormed into the building, killing 49 people and injuring 53. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history, and the deadliest terrorist attack on the country since 9/11.
Many tributes have been paid to the victims, but few are as poignant and poetic as Never Stop Dancing, an installation by Phoenix Lindsay Hall, MFA Photography ‘12.
On view at Victori + Mo, 56 Bogart St, Brooklyn, through February 12, the installation features a series of 49 globes hanging from the ceiling, “radiant with gently diffused light,” writes Nicole Kaack in Art Forum.
“Arranged in impossible orbits and strung with fishing wire, the installation is akin to a science-class diorama of an unknown solar system, illuminated by the glare of unknown suns,” she adds. “Little porcelain squares, unglazed and matte white, envelop the surfaces of these imperfect orbs. They are like the mirrored fragments of disco balls but utterly drained of glimmer and sparkle — eyes that once flickered and flashed now overcast, blind.”
The exhibition, Kaack continues, responds to violence of the horrific event with “love and poetry.”
She adds: “The artist literally recasts this staple of nightclub décor as a mute witness to passion, cruelty, and death.”