Izzy the Frog in
Lumina Land
Housatonic Museum, Bridgeport, CT
Izzy the Frog in Lumina Land was an
experiential exhibition, which will lead the viewers/participants through
a landscape of reflective ponds of water, moving images and light, glass
structures, bubbling water tanks, a series of large drawn images,
accompanied by a sound track produced in collaboration with Istvan Peter
B'Racz.
The exhibition illustrated stories of the
evolution of our relationship with toads and frogs as symbols of
transformation through multicultural myths and as the species of warning
of universal ecological breakdown. Bringing Izzy the Frog to an urban
setting, creating surrealistic installations of media art of and about
nature in the Housatonic Museum emphasized the need for environmental
awareness beyond rural locations. The sound of a frog can be heard in
nearly any environment that provides water. We all know what the sound is
like. Children will know the sound from stories-fairy tales to
contemporary.
The Izzy exhibition created a multi-sensory
experience that will be so engaging that the audience will be drawn to
spend time within the exhibition to discover the source of the imagery-the
use of the frog image throughout human history to represent change and
transformation. Accompanying frog music
will be triggered by the participants through sensors.
The exhibition is intended to pull together
the interests and audiences of the Beardsley Zoo, with their amphibian
exhibit, the Ball Park at Harbor Yard, with their public appeal, and the
Housatonic Museum to create a series of works that will both offer a
wondrous and unique experience for all ages while introducing an
educational opportunity to become proactive in environmental stewardship.
The combined efforts of these three institutions will make a significant
contribution in bringing the variety of populations in Fairfield County
and beyond, and offer a unique opportunity for visitors from other parts
of the state and the northeast to visit Bridgeport.
There will be an accompanying catalogue,
with a brief history of frogs, to include allegorical figures in world
cultures and their biological history around the world and throughout
time. We are seeking contributions from biologists from Yale University
and the Beardsley Zoo.
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