Downtown Dallas will transform into a symphony of projections and performances for Aurora’s Biennial this weekend. The free public event will be the sixth edition, but the first in-person biennial since 2018. On Saturday, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., the organization will transform the Dallas Public Library, Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas City Hall and other buildings into art installations. This year’s theme is “FuturePresentPast.” Here are the artists who will light up Dallas:
Alejandro Almanza Pereda, A Glass of Fruit, 2016
Courtesy of Alejandro Almanza Pereda.
Pereda is known for exploring what different cultures consider dangerous or risky. In this video piece, he shoots a traditional still-life scene underwater. The scene is divided by a glass sheet and different objects can be seen floating and sinking. What results is a seemingly unstable reality that plays on relationships between objects and the viewer’s perspective.
Ciara Elle Bryant, Aroun?d, 2024
Courtesy of the artist.
A Dallas native, Bryant uses her art to explore Black culture. By using photography, video and installations, Bryant seeks to examine the way Black identity is viewed in the new millennium. This installation features a two-channel video and slide project that is meant to mimic the overstimulation within our culture.
Daniel Canogar, Chyron, 2022
While Canogar got his start in photography, he quickly expanded his work into projected images and LED displays. Canogar brings his large-scale digital artwork to Aurora this year with Chyron. The algorithmic artwork weaves news-channel chyrons like frayed fabric. The result reflects the unstable balance of today’s information landscape. The piece is updated in real time and features text from major international news outlets including CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg, BBC News, Reuters, CNBC, Al Jazeera and Le Monde.
Melanie Clemmons and Zak Loyd, A.G.U.I., 2024
Courtesy of the artists.
Clemmons and Loyd are both North Texas natives and professors at local universities. They’ve been partnering on immersive video, laser and XR installations since 2009. Their video piece for Aurora studies the imperfect use of artificial intelligence.
Jess Garland, Behind the Strings, 2024
Ciara Elle Bryant
By looping harp and guitar with ethereal vocals, Garland has created a jazzy, avant garde sound. The multi-instrumentalist participated in the 2022-23 Elevator Project at AT&T Performing Arts Center and in 2021, she released Harp & Sol, a film looking at environmental racism in Dallas. In Behind the Strings, Garland showcases a series of performances that highlight Black women pioneers in music with string instruments.
Doug Land, The Hedlund, 2024
Courtesy of the artist.
Gardening gets a glow-up in Land’s work. Finding inspiration from the wooded hills he grew up around in Cedar Hill, to his childhood spent gardening with his grandmother, Land has a great love for the natural world. As green spaces have become sparse, Land has used his art to create dialogue about the outdoors. Hedlund is an interactive sculpture that inspires reflection on change and growth.
Julie Libersat and Naomi Kliewer, Safety Moves, 2024
Courtesy of the artist.
Libersat is an intermedia artist and designer, while Kliewer is a performance artist. Together the two educators have created Safety Moves, a performative installation that uses safety equipment to create a maze. Viewers are encouraged to walk through the maze and consider what safety means.
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Thermal Drift, 2023
Lance Gerber
Lozano-Hemmer uses technology — think robotic lights, media walls and telematic networks — to create light and shadow works. Thermal Drift uses body heat as artwork. Using thermal cameras, the project detects participants’ body heat and then uses a particle system to visualize the heat dispersion.
Steve Parker, Sanctus, 2021; Sonic Meditations for Marching Band, 2024
Daniele Molajoli.
Based in Austin, Parker is an artist and musician who creates what he calls social sculptures. These large-scale performances seek to create a meaningful exchange between the public and sculptures. Parker will have two pieces at this year’s Biennial. Sanctus is a copper sculpture that is meant to be a sanctuary for birds and people, while Sonic Meditations for Marching Band is a collaborative sonic meditative performance.
Hector A. Ramirez, Entre Piedras y Copia, 2024
Courtesy of the artist.
Originally from El Paso but now based in Fort Worth, Ramirez is currently a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. This light installation features a series of 20 light-filled clay sculptures meant to reference two streets in El Paso that run parallel to the border.
Diana Rojas, Query, 2022
Courtesy of the artist.
Rojas is an interdisciplinary artist most interested in exploring the things we can’t see. Her work explores physics, the cosmos, material science and technology as a means to discuss existence and consciousness. Query is a single-channel video featuring rings of light, clusters of stars and movement of light and shadows.
Daniel Rozin, Mirror No.12, 2013
Courtesy of the artist.
Rozin has been playing with unconventional materials like trash and hand fans and turning them into interactive installations and sculptures for nearly three decades. His kinetic mirrors take those unconventional materials to create reflections of people using cameras and custom software. For this installation, live imagery is captured by a small camera and then software is used to create a version of that image using a finite number of straight lines.
Tramaine Townsend, Sallad, 2022
Courtesy of the artist.
Townsend started as a photographer, but has expanded into filmmaking, directing and production. Sallad is a culmination of all these practices. The film looks at the people, places and culture that have influenced Townsend’s journey. Each vignette in the film weaves together selected scenes presented on a loop, which will be projected on a 32-foot wide screen and synchronized with sound.
Marina Zurkow and James Schmitz, The Breath Eaters, 2022
Courtesy of the artists.
Collaborating since 2021, Zurkow and Schmitz use generative artwork and data to create pieces focused on the environment. The Breath Eaters visualizes carbon dioxide pollutants and other greenhouse gases produced by wildfires and fossil fuels by using a custom software. The work shows how pollutants travel into the upper atmosphere and across the world.
Students from Booker T. Washington High School create installations for Aurora.
Courtesy of Aurora.
Student winners of Aurora’s open call for projects will also have their work on display at this year’s event. Winners include Raymond Hernandez, Cori Johnson, Willow Solis and Zeke Wooten. Seeds of Memory is an installation by Wooten, which features a large blue figure lying on the ground with its head facing the sky. Viewers can climb up a staircase that leads to a glass platform over the figure’s stomach, where they can look inside. The second student piece from Hernandez, Johnson and Solis is called Deep Sea Awareness, The Jellyfish. The sculpture features a large-scale hot air balloon designed to look like a giant jellyfish.
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