WorkSpace: Pablo Vargas Lugo: Eclipses for Austin

About the Exhibition

November 14, 2009 – February 21, 2010

Pablo Vargas Lugo, Eclipses

Pablo Vargas Lugo’s WorkSpace project, Eclipses for Austin, explores solar eclipses as important collective rituals. Total eclipses of the sun provoke astonishment, anxiety, hope, joy, and fear and compel those who witness them to question their place in the world. For the project, 200 people gathered in the stands of UT‘s Darrel K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium and staged 4 solar eclipses that will occur in Texas over the course of the next 340 years. In a carefully choreographed performance, participants hold up black and white signs in a simulation of each eclipse. Vargas Lugo produced 4 videos-one of each simulated eclipse-and a soundtrack, recorded with musician Eric Peterson, percussionist andM.A. candidate in the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at UT, which will be on view at the Blanton

Download the Eclipses for Austin brochure [PDF]

WorkSpace showcases innovations in contemporary art. The series features commissioned projects by emerging and mid–career artists from around the world, along with illustrated critical texts, and an array of exciting public programs. Created in response to the Blanton’s gallery space, the exhibitions that result from these artistic investigations rotate every ten weeks, providing museum visitors with constant and ever–changing glimpses into the art of the present day.

WorkSpace: Pablo Vargas Lugo: Eclipses for Austin is generously supported by the following members of the Blanton Contemporary Salon.

Contemporary Connoisseur

Melissa Jones and Michael Klein

Contemporary Aficionado

Suzanne and David Booth, Michael Chesser, Chula Reynolds and Sophia Collier, Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee, and Julie and John Thornton

Contemporary Devotee

Kristin and Steve Belt, Ellen and David Berman, Dan Bullock, Sarah and Ernest Butler, Cissie Ferguson, Jennifer E. Finlay, Minerva Gonzalez, Deborah Green, Margaret Hight and Paul Thompson, Barbara Horan, Amanda and Brad Nelsen, Pamela Quinn, John Robertson, Cheryl and John Sauder, and Anonymous donor

The Blanton offers special thanks to the Athletics Department of The University of Texas at Austin for its assistance in the production of the project.