CINCINNATI — While most of the attractions at the celebration of light known as BLINK are projections of artwork onto buildings in Cincinnati, a popular work this year features an interactive creation that visitors get to shape themselves.
What You Need To Know
- BLINK is a free outdoor festival of light an art in Cincinnati
- Artist Daniel Shields has created a work called "String Theory for Dummies"
- Shields encourages visitors to touch his yarn sculpture and add to the creation
Greater Cincinnati artist Daniel Shields calls his work, “String Theory for Dummies.” It features a large framework of fluorescent yarn. Everything is lit up by lighting designers Jamebo Corsini and Daniel Hiudt.
Visitors can climb inside and over the exhibit. And they can add more yarn, which Shields hands out nightly.
“I really wanted to create something that everybody could get their hands on and could touch it,” Shields said. "I’m hoping to connect people to the trials and errors of creation that go along with being an artist.”
Shields posted signs around the exhibit encouraging visitors to “touch the art.”
“I wanted to create something that anybody will feel comfortable stepping up to it. They can rip it down, they can add to it, they can knot it,” he said.
“For a couple hours each night I’ll be acting as a catalyst showing them that it’s OK to do anything you want with the art.”
One young visitor asked a friend who was tugging on some yarn if he could eat it. Shields found that amusing and said the best part of BLINK for him is listening to comments and watching visitor after visitor pose for a selfie while they’re playing with the yarn.
“It's pure joy to watch everybody having fun like this,” Shields said. “I couldn't ask for anything better."
Shields is a BLINK regular, having been featured with other yarn creations. He said it’s more than just a festival.
“It’s not like Oktoberfest with a couple of beer booths and some bands,” Shields said.
“Here, it’s like the whole point of it is the city — you’re walking around, you’re looking at the architecture of the buildings and how artists choose to accentuate that. It’s a really special thing.”