Mirrored on parallel aisles using twin projectors, this video was projected in situ within the sanctuary of Grace Church Cathedral during the annual Spirited Brunch festival. Centered above the exterior aisle’s exit arches, the open hands take on new meaning inside a sacred space, alongside the hues from colored stained glass. Over the course of several evenings, this video was improvisationally projected at night on the exterior surfaces of Grace Church Cathedral. Brummund used a digital projector to flood the north, south, east, and west facades of the cathedral with the overlapping hands, exploring the concave and the convex architectural forms. This ephemeral street art explored scale and softness, as the images were fractured by the negative space and dappled light. Printed images inside Brummund’s FSA open studio document the unique event. Karen Brummund’s “Performing Harmony” marks a distinctive moment in her career – it is her first representational video projection that she has created, as well as her first time projecting onto and inside a sacred space.

Brummund’s open studio during the FSA Garden Party featured a mix of video projections, drawings and afterimages. Nine grid drawings entitled “Daily Sketches of Diagonals” – a meditation for each morning of Brummund’s residency – feature the only color present in Brummund’s work. Adjacent to the drawings were landscape and portrait prints of Brummund’s night projections on Grace Church Cathedral. A large scale afterimage of hands printed on mylar evoke a cinematic film still of the community build process. In the corner, Brummund’s three-dimensional cube installation provided the sculptural canvas for her video projection, “Grid Theory 29.” On the center table, a monitor appeared to have a white, blank display. An interactive video work, Brummund encouraged visitors to look through a polarizing filter to view her “Invisible Video.” Brummund customizes the monitor so that the viewer has to look at art sideways and creates a unique viewing experience.

Cover image: Karen Brummund, “98 Wentworth St: Performing Harmony,” 2023. Video installation: video, projection, community build, cathedral.

Above left image: Karen Brummund, “98 Wentworth St,” 2023. Public video projection: video, community build, cathedral.