A crowd of people attended Esther Boller’s installation art “Ethereal Lights” last May 26th-27th at The Eden Village Church.
The place also had an installation of artist Hannah Buechler, a close collaborator of Boller. Buechler’s artwork hung suspended from the ceilings, leading the viewers into the room where all happened.
“I just wanted to make pieces for Esther’s show that I haven’t shown before,” she said.
Buechler is a senior fabric major, with a minor in painting. Buechler added that she was really inspired by the Jin Dynasty’s textiles. Her artwork shows some Chinese patterns and characteristics such as dragons, clouds, and sunsets. Buechler used an acrylic support, which, combined with paint, added a unique play with natural light.
At precisely 8 p.m. people were lead inside the darkroom. The floor was scattered with little lights. The few spaces that were cleared off lights marked the path that the models would walk through.
My parents were gone a lot so it was mostly my younger brother and I home, so we were going outside and looked up,” said Boller of the installation. “It was that feeling of connection, of something bigger to this world.”
And much like her childhood’s memory, spectators were standing on a dark floor speckled with lights: the sky, full of stars.
The enthusiasm in the room was tangible and everybody stopped making sounds as soon as a light turned on a little passage in front of the room, accompanied by a hypnotic music created by the sound designer of the show, Roberto Garcia.
The models were coming.
As soon as the first model appeared, there was no doubt: the models were stars covered with fabric of shining Swarovski crystals and walking towards the crowd.
The fabrics fluttered all around the models during their slow and confident walk. A subtle game of spotlights, set by Elena Romeraz, as well as an enchanting music, illuminated the models’ path at particular and specific moments.
After their walk, each model stayed in the back of the room so people could admire them.
Esther Boller then came out, thanking everyone, and told us about her brother, who passed away just before she came to SCAD. Shortly after the unfortunate incident, Boller’s years at SCAD became difficult. It was soon after having a meeting about Senior Collection at the end of her junior year that she realized she wanted to do something that will help cope with her grief.
“So when I was thinking back on things that give me hope… it was that stars story, looking up and feeling less alone,” she said.
Initially, the collection started as an installation idea. Boller first talked to Buechler and asked her to help with binding the crystals on the clothes. Then came Romeraz for the lights, and Garcia for the music, followed by other crucial people that would help with the organization. In total, twenty-nine people worked on the project.
At the end of the show, Boller stayed to explain to curious spectators her long process of creation.
During the fall of 2016, Boller worked on experimenting, processing, and, by at the end of quarter, came with a final design for her collection.
Starting with the Stars concept, Boller did some research on knitting.
“I love to knit,” she said. “I first started designing with knit; I learned when I was eight. The collection was pretty much all sewed pieces.”
To recreate the closest pattern that looked like stars, Boller used Star Stitches and Estonian Laces to knit most of her collection as well as choosing the best fabric which fit for these patterns: the bamboo yarn.
After working on the Stars pattern, Boller worked on a knit that could mimic Light Auras that would look like “wind blowing”.
I make my own little pattern of stitches that look[s] like they were being blown by the wind,” said Boller.
And this pattern became evident after the models stopped walking, when the clothes were still floating, as if a delicate breeze was permanently present in the room.
The overall process was a lot of experimenting, and working on knitting and lacing for about fourteen hours per day, with the help of her collaborators.
Boller, Buechler, Garcia, Romiraz, and the rest of their crew shared their remaining time at SCAD working on the collection and on the installation space provided by Boller’s church.
And at the end, Boller and her collaborators succeeded in showing to the audience what a Walk of Stars looked like, across a sky dispersing by Ethereal Lights.
Written by Scarlett Ruggiero
Photography by Liam Graham Haehnle & Max Meyer