Artist uses neon, glass to create art at Fuller Projects exhibit

A stark-white tube of light pierced through the sides of glass jars, the tops suspended from wooden shelves lining the perimeter of an empty room.

Artist Jason Chakavarty showed his latest exhibit, “Pickled – to Preserve or Flavor,” Friday night in the Fuller Projects gallery in Bloomington.  

“Each time it’s different. Usually, in the past ... it’s been stacked floor to ceiling,” Chakavarty said.

It was the sixth showing of this particular exhibit, Chakavarty said. Typically the jars sit on the shelves rather than being suspended; no one exhibit is the same as the last, he said. The first exhibit was in a corner window in L.A. and the shelves wrapped around the walls 40 feet long, floor to ceiling.  

Most viewers said they appreciated his unique work.

“He’s got a profound knowledge for materials and uses them in a very unique way,” Matt Steel, a sculpture major, said. “He’s doing a wonderful job of creating an experiential visit to the gallery.”

Others were left confused by the exhibit.

“I don’t understand it,” Brennan Mackey, a business major, said. “It’s a room full of jars with light going through it.”

However, no one could deny its originality.

“It’s something different. I probably haven’t seen anything like this in my life,” John Braun, an economics major, said. “I’m kind of wondering how they got holes in these glass jars, to be honest.”

Chakavarty played it cool, sipping on a vodka-Red Bull drink from a Pizza Express cup as he talked to viewers about his work. He said that he learned the technical aspect by working at a neon shop, but that it didn’t affect his creative process. He also implements reusable materials into most of his work.

Derek Parker, co-director of the Fuller Projects, gave Chakavarty complete control over the space and even allowed for the exhibit to partially block the doorway to his art studio. He has to duck underneath the shelves to get inside now, Chakavarty said.

It took two days to set up the exhibit with Parker’s help, and it will be up for another two weeks.

“Since they’re something that’s manufactured, they’re recognizable to some people,” Chakavarty said.