Latest Art Kiosk work focuses on negative space in Redwood City

While many might overlook negative spaces, this installation, entitled “Oracle”  is entirely based on just that, Ghidini said. 

“I find it very potent,” Ghidini said. “Once you can learn to see negative spaces as a thing rather than nothing, that’s kind of the key of learning how to draw representationally. I’ve incorporated that into the work I do.”

The installation incorporates both sculpture and drawing, the latter being the medium Ghidini teaches at UC Berkeley extension. In addition to the wooden sculpture — which is actually four sculptures placed together — Ghidini has chalk and pastel drawings on the back wall of the kiosk that follow the negative spaces and cast shadows from the structure.

Three walls of the kiosk are covered almost entirely with windows, allowing light to hit the structure from different angles and cast a variety of shadow lines around the room. 

“I love the idea that the shadows are always shifting,” she said. “The time of day that I draw them has been kind of random. I started in my studio with a light against the sculpture but as I got it into the space, I layered more negative space and cast shadows onto it.”

At varying times of day, different shadows are cast against the walls of the kiosk, prompting viewers to consider which are real and which are drawn. 

“I’m really happy about the interaction of it,” Ghidini said. “Some people think of shadows as an absence, but I find them to be filled with nuance.” 

The wooden structure, primarily crafted from repurposed furniture, is constructed in such a way where the foundation appears visually like chairs — a motif that Ghidini uses often in her work. She said that she enjoys taking things apart and putting them back together again in a different way.

She will ultimately have to do just that once her installation residency is up mid-April due to the rotational aspect of Art Kiosk. She already knows that she’ll repurpose the wood once again.  

“It is short lived, it’s only for six weeks,” she said. “I would never put a piece like this up again. The way it is right now is all it will be.”

But that doesn’t feel like a bad thing to Ghidini. Since a lot of her work is on-site specific, she is used to its fleeting nature. 

“It’s how most life is like, isn’t it? Nothing lives forever,” she said. “Depending on what materials I use, time affects them. Eventually even metal deteriorates.”

The exhibition will be on display until April 14, at Courthouse Square. “Oracle” was commissioned by Fung Collaborative Projects in collaboration with Redwood City Improvement Association for the Redwood City Art Kiosk.