Rod Lathim’s fingerprints are all over town. The Big Yellow House’s wine cellar, an icon of Summerland, was the site of his first spiritual awakening. The legacy of his award-winning Access Theatre resides in modern day organizations like Grace Fisher Foundation’s Inclusive Clubhouse. And his exploration into fine art has been seen scattered around the city at places like Helena Mason Gallery, GreySpace, Voice Gallery, and others.
On February 5, Lathim will unveil his largest solo exhibition to date at Art & Soul Gallery. LIT: Love, Illumination, Transcendence will debut 30 pieces that evolve around his work exploring neon, deconstruction, and assemblage.
On a cloudy afternoon, I stepped into Lathim’s world — if only for a moment. It was an extraordinary experience to visit both his home and studio in person. For most locals, Lathim is a known figure — associated with the stage. But a few years ago, he started “downloading” (his term) images of neon art from his spiritual muses. At first, he assumed they had the wrong guy. But when the images wouldn’t stop, he reconsidered the messages — and discovered that neon was the perfect medium for him.
“Sculpting with light reflects my spiritual path,” he told me in his living room, where pieces like “Tha-wang!” and “Neon Nocturne” are on display. “Neon is costly, but there’s nothing like it.”
So much of the exhibit tells the tale of Lathim’s journey from the stage to the studio. In many ways, it’s an homage to all he’s loved, accomplished, and explored in his sixty-plus years. For so many artists, of any medium, a piece of oneself stays with the art once showcased. In LIT, for perhaps the first time ever, Lathim is putting his entire self on display. His work has always been vulnerable, of course, but he’s never revealed so much of his spiritual journey before.
There’s a twinkle in his eye when he tells me, “What do I have to lose?”
That couldn’t be more true about the piece entitled “Ode To Hilma.” Inspired by Hilma af Klint and her painting “Altarpiece No. 2,” he recounts Klint’s own experiences with the spiritual world and her eventual posthumous exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. “She painted from spirit,” he says. “I’ve created my version of [Altarpiece No. 2] in three dimensions with neon, wood, and a sphere.” The resemblance is uncanny, but in a way that perfectly articulates Lathim’s passions of light and space. He also reveals more about his process than ever before (and teases that there’s even a chapter dedicated to Klint in his new book, Finding the Divine Child: A Journey of Spirit, Light, and Art, which also will be available at Art & Soul Gallery).
In “Sondheim’s Sunday,” Lathim details his love of composer Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sunday in the Park with George, and its inspiration, Georges Seurat’s 1886 masterpiece “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” As Lathim talks about the last song in Sondheim’s show, entitled “Sunday,” (Reprise) he becomes visibly emotional. Not just in recounting the song and the final French horn notes, but the moment he was able to visit the iconic painting in Chicago. “This piece is a tribute to that song,” he says. Combining his passion for music with a little part of his soul, it’s both familiar and revealing.
[Click to enlarge]
In this show, Lathim illuminates pieces with movement using beaded neon. Many people may never have seen or experienced beaded neon before. Made from krypton, it’s a naturally occurring gas that’s mined. “It’s kinetic,” he says. Both “Ode to Hilma” and “Sondheim’s Sunday” use both solid and beaded neon, bringing life and movement into his already energetic pieces. Experience these pieces, along with many others, at LIT: Love, Illumination, Transcendence. It opens on February 5 for 1st Thursday Art Walk at Art & Soul Gallery, 1323 State St.
For more information, visit artandsoulsb.com/pages/events.
You must be logged in to post a comment.