We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shana Mabari. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shana below.
Shana , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I was thrilled when I heard that the Getty’s theme for this iteration of its region-wide Pacific Standard Time initiative was going to be “Art and Science Collide,” and I was doubly thrilled when my work was selected to appear in Crossing Over, the Caltech exhibition that’s part of that initiative. More than 20 years ago, my first collaborations with Caltech scientists crystallized my interest in exploring the intersections between science and art, and that’s been a throughline in my practice ever sense. This installation feels especially significant.
The installation—Spectrum Petals—consists of seven mirrored, spectral-colored cylinders, each between three to four feet in diameter, that guide visitors along Caltech’s historic Betchel Mall into the exhibition. The sculptures are part of a larger series, Diametros Petals, that I began in 2016. And what’s interesting about this presentation is that you can see the connection to the aesthetic concerns of the Light and Space artists of Southern California, several of whom are also represented in Crossing Over.
Shana , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I first became fascinated by the intersections of art and science back in 2003, when I worked as a liaison between the Graduate Industrial Design Department at the Art Center College of Design and graduate students at Caltech. Though on the surface they seem rather different, what I was struck more by were the overlaps in terms of ideas and cultures. I had the privilege of working with incredibly brilliant scientists, including Dr. Shinsuke Shimojo, Dr. Christof Koch, and Dr. Tobias Delbruck. I became a part of Dr. Shimojo’s lab and designed optical illusion environments for presentations at vision science conferences and exhibitions, including the exhibition Close Encounter–Science Meets Art at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. In 2004, Dr. Shimojo and I were awarded a patent for the design of Dynamic Spatial Illusions, a portable version of a visual-and-sensory experimental environment that I designed. I still have ongoing collaborations with experts in the vision sciences at Caltech and in the neurosciences at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich. Then, in 2018, I had the privilege of being selected as the first artist to fly aboard a mission of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—or SOFIA— which is a customized 747 that flies to a maximum altitude of 45,000 feet. It’s outfitted with a large telescope to study things like black holes and star formation. It was a breathtaking experience, one which I went onto explore in various series of artworks and also in the first book I curated, SPACE. I asked a cross section of folks from my own social and professional sphere, ranging from an astronaut and a musician to a curator and fellow artists, “What do you think about when you think about the word space?” Their answers, in the form of short essays, sort of explode the everydayness of the word and reveal a kaleidoscope of perspectives.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I strive to constantly learn and experience new things. I try to stay outside my comfort zone and push boundaries towards the unknown. My next artist residency after NASA, for example, was aboard a mission of Sea Shepherd Global, the international non-profit that works to fight illegal commercial fishing.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The moment when an idea occurs, and I see all the way through the creative process and envision the final work. Temple Grandin talks about this process in her book Thinking in Pictures.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shanamabari.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shanamabari/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shanamabari.artist
- Other: https://vimeo.com/user46007242
Image Credits
Shana Mabari Studio, Eric Minh Swenson, Eric Staudenmaier