The innovative show features a variety of multimedia artists at nine locations throughout Easthampton and Holyoke.
A woman looks at Amy Johnquest's "Was Is" exhibit at REACH Fest at Eastworks in Easthampton on Saturday. (Conor Berry, The Republican)EASTHAMPTON — Fascinating. Emotional. Bizarre.
These are just a few of the words people used to describe "REACH: a multi-city exhibition of contemporary practitioners," which opened last week in Easthampton and Holyoke and runs through May.
For Bostonians David Miller and Jane Wiley, Saturday's trip to Western Massachusetts for REACH Fest Day – the official opening of the two-city arts festival featuring 30 contemporary artists at nine locations – was well worth the trip.
"There's nothing we haven't enjoyed," Miller said.
Both he and Wiley know some of the artists whose eclectic, multimedia works are on display at Eastworks in Easthampton and the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, as well as several other locations in the two cities.
But what most appealed to Miller was artist Gil Scullion's "Night After Night" installation at Eastworks, a mediation on sleep – or a lack thereof. Miller said he found the exhibit both soothing and disturbing, with its cutouts of sheep, words projected on a screen, and a stark bedroom setting at the end of the walk-through exhibit.
Janette Shelly, of Holyoke, looks at the piece called "Tower of Babel" by Peter Waite of Glastonbury at REACH Fest at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke on Saturday. (Dave Roback, The Republican)"Scullion's work stood out. It's just beautifully made," Miller said.
Elsewhere in Eastworks, people gathered in groups to talk about the art they experienced, whether it was Amy Johnquest's "Was Is" – a riot of color and texture composed of the self-described pack rat's "creations and accumulations" over the span of her 53 years – or Derek Hoffend's totally trippy, totally novel "Sonotron" sound sculpture and light installation.
People were invited to enter the skeletal, geometric structure, which is imbedded with 10 speakers, for an audio immersion session in which they are "bathed in frequencies," according to Hoffend. A low drone note, with underlying, undulating frequencies, seemed to lull people into a state of true serenity, with some stretching and yawning after exiting the installation.
Back in the middle of Eastworks, The Suitcase Junket, a Greenfield-based musical experiment, delivered some foot-stomping acoustic roots music, with trace elements of bluegrass, The Band and even Wilco.
Nancy Dickinson, of Northampton, was enjoying the multimedia show, but she confessed to being a bit biased. "I'm here because of my son," she said, referring to Jay Dickinson, a so-called sound sculptor whose work was on display at Eastworks.
Saturday featured live performances in both Easthampton and Holyoke by contemporary movement and sound artists, as well as the "One-Minute Vidfest," a film festival at Popcorn Noir in Easthampton featuring one-minute short films submitted by over 80 artists from Easthampton to Serbia.
REACH Fest Day on Saturday in Easthampton and Holyoke drew crowds in both cities. Here, people enjoy some of the art on display at Eastworks in Easthampton.(Conor Berry, The Republican)In Easthampton, locations include Eastworks, ECA+ Gallery, Nash Gallery and Popcorn Noir. In Holyoke, spaces include City Hall, City Hall Annex, the Steiger’s Building, the new Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center and Wistariahurst.
The official closing for REACH’s Easthampton exhibits will be celebrated with a performance on May 4 by pianist and composer Melissa St. Pierre at the Apollo Grill from 9 to 10:30 p.m.
"Sound" is the official closing for Holyoke REACH exhibits at the Wistariahurst Museum on May 16 at 6p.m. Percussionist Matt Weston will open the concert, followed by Arthur Brooks and Ensemble V, a group that blends traditional jazz with more contemporary schemes of formal music. The performances will be followed by a light reception and a question-and-answer session with the musicians.