Dioramas at the Opera

The word "twitter", mostly employed by delicate English septuagenarians, has been reclaimed by local artist and cinematographer Jeanne Stern. She presents her work at The Opera House this Friday with the show Twitter Box: Spatial Illusions Of All Kinds.

"A 'twitter box' is a moving microcosm," Stern explained to us. "It could be a film, performance, or diorama, or a drawing that is suggestive of motion." The boxes will accompany mechanical ballets and hanging gardens. "I use the [phrase] 'mechanical ballet' to mean puppetry that is controlled by mechanical means," continued Stern, "and 'hanging garden' to describe a layered paper diorama."

Don't be fooled by the seeming 6th grade ease of Stern's craft; her top-notch quirk recently attracted the attention of Jim Henson's daughter, Heather Henson, who included a feature of Stern's in Handmade Puppet Dreams, a traveling puppet film festival. Henson understood the conceptual richness behind Stern's simple forms. The artist waxed poetic about them (to our delight):

I've always enjoyed making objects and worlds. I like the challenge of working with minimal elements because it forces me to be more creative. I studied studio art at Connecticut College. I mostly did paintings and drawings, but also was involved in computer science, music, and writing. I got tired of the flat static image, and started exploring kinetics and space as a way of combining my different ideas. I work primarily with paper because I like creating illusions- in particular the illusion of making a 3D space out of 2D layers. I prefer old things, things with a lot off texture, I don't want my paper to be too flat. I've found that old book covers are good for texture. My goal is to create organic objects and worlds, ones that look like they happened almost as if by accident.

Don't you just want to meet her? Also, her art will be swaying gently to the strains of Phillip Glass as interpreted by accordionist Joe Egnot. Only in Austin...

Twitter Box: Spatial Illusions Of All Kinds--The Art of Jeanne Stern
The Opera House
Friday, June 1
7-10pm (opening reception)
2209K South 1st Street