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MARIA BURUNDARENA

LIT, Dual Show with Luftwerk - Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana
November 7th 2025 through February 15 2026

Vidrios rotos que brillan como relámpagos, Broken glass that shines like light thunderstorms
27 mixed media photographs, light, neon yellow zip ties 

This installation explores the tension between the legibility and the perceptual instability of a photograph through manipulations of resolution, the use of reflective materials, and the interaction of light within a specific architectural space. The first row of modules was printed specifically for the Hyndman Gallery here at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts. They align along a horizon line that mirrors both the curvature of the gallery and the nearby horizon of Lake Michigan. The gallery’s columns are wrapped in emergency blankets—a material designed for crisis, to preserve body heat and repel water—here reimagined as protective coverings for architectural supports. These reflective surfaces suggest fragility and protection simultaneously while amplifying the play of light throughout the space.

The photographs become a spatial experience: the modular panels form a corridor that invites viewers to move around and behind the images, where the echoes of the printing process can be seen on the reverse. This arrangement creates an interior environment for pause and reflection, bathed in pink light.

Color functions here as both spatial intervention and emotional charge. The use of saturated hues evokes a “raging RGB” intensity. Light and color transform the gallery into an immersive atmosphere—an environment where pink illumination allows the photographs to stand out and engage dynamically with their surroundings. Each panel is suspended by aluminum bars and neon yellow zip ties. Both materials chosen to evoke urgency, improvisation, and a sense of immediacy rooted in urban experience.

The source images are photographs of broken glass taken in Chicago’s Loop following the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. They have been digitally decomposed into 27 modules
measuring 96 by 36 inches each. Processed through a halftone technique originally developed for print, the images are broken into dots of varying size that create tonal depth and optical blending. Each panel results from a mixed-media process involving heat and reflective foil, transforming the photographic surface into an object that captures and refracts light, memory, and emotion.

For more information:
https://lubeznikcenter.org/exhibitions/lit