Qunyh Vantu “Thresholds” at the McColl Center. Photo by Mert Jones.

Last Friday, January 24th, Quynh Vantu’s “Thresholds” opened at the McColl Center for Visual Art. Vantu, a current artist in residence at the McColl, was trained and licensed as an architect, but has since come to blend art and architecture in her practice — undistinguishing one from the other. With “Thresholds,” Vantu re-imagined the first-floor gallery and entrance ways of the McColl Center using fabric and light to transform these spaces into “condensed social exchanges, compressed physical negotiations, or transforming the lens through which we re-evaluate our routine environment.”

In other words, as you walk through “Thresholds,” the installation forces you to physically act and move in certain ways because of its construction, and then with the addition of other people in the same space, you must negotiate how to act and move with them and the installation. This is particularly the case in the first part of the exhibition, which is a series of open doorways with varied sensory cues. This basic scenario is very much at the heart of Vantu’s art. She is vested in exploring the social interaction that occurs with and because of the built environment. The active and unique space of a threshold recurs in Vantu’s art, as it is this space where people are frequently moving in and out that enhances social engagement.

The second part of the exhibition occurs in a large darkened room. The only light illuminating the space comes from several strategically placed projectors casting grids across the walls. Compared to the first part of “Thresholds,” this space allows visitors freedom of movement, but every move you make interrupts the projectors throwing shadows on the opposite wall and possibly blending or interposing on someone else’s shadow. At first this room seems strange, which is only heightened by the haze created by fog machines, but after a few moments, a child-like fascination returns and visitors start to play with the projectors and each other, deliberately casting shadows, twirling, making hand puppets, and interacting with each other more intentionally.

As the introductory label to the exhibition puts it: “In the midst of this technological age, digital networks and virtual realms are being constructed at a staggering rate. It enables and subsequently rewards our most insular and private impulses. Qunyh Vantu’s ‘Thresholds’ serves to gracefully guide us back to a tangible reality through a series of shared experiences with ourselves and a community.”

Quynh Vantu “Threholds” at the McColl Center. Photo by Mert Jones.

“Thresholds” will be on display until March 29th. The McColl Center is open to the public on Thursdays and Fridays from 3-9 p.m., but one of the best times to view the exhibition is during an Open Studio Saturday, the next of which is scheduled for February 8th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.