This year marks the 20th anniversary of Paducah’s Christmas in the Park and Paducah School of Art and Design is once again collaborating with Paducah Power System to make Noble Park shine for the holidays through December 31.
Creating artwork for this year’s Christmas in the Park, PSAD’s new sculpture instructor, Shane Ward, designed Charged and Transfigured. His sculptural work includes an oversized diamond form and inclined circular plane upon which images and words are projected through video mapping technologies and equipment. Each facet of the diamond is illuminated by videos featuring the play of light on actual diamonds, appropriated from commercial sources. The tilted circle serves to receive a running literary narrative that contributes to the work’s overall message on the transformative power of light.
Describing his work as “bringing together three seemingly disparate references: Stan Brakhage's 1963 film, MothLight, an excerpt from Annie Dillard's 1974 nonfiction narrative, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and a Zales diamond commercial,” Ward added, “all of these references, in one way or another, speak to the transformative power of light...”
The unique artwork contributes another unique experience for audiences of Christmas in the Park, a popular event made possible by Paducah Power System, said PSAD Dean Paul Aho. “Shane has channeled the event’s magic of light into an alternate appreciation of its many wonders, and viewers will be able to watch the piece at length or get a sense of it while driving by during Christmas in the Park’s evening hours.”