Presented by ON MAIN with the partecipation of VIVO Media Arts

THRU THE TRAPDOOR is a 5-day exhibition concluding with a monumental closing event. This is the final act and the end of an era for 1965 Main St., an important and innovative creative hub since 1993. It has been the home-base for VIVO Media Arts, Alderbridge Mini-Storage, Gallery 1965, New Forms Festival, and many other organizations and artists.

On Main Gallery has occupied one of the storefronts since 2007. In 2012 this space was expanded and completely renovated by Rick Erickson, who put in a “secret trap door” leading down to Alderbridge Mini-Storage, a labyrinth of 70 spaces in all shapes and sizes, with 6500 sq. ft. of storage lockers.

Dozens of artists will be transforming this unique warehouse into an amazing site for experiencing contemporary art. They will respond to the architectural features of the site, along with ideas of memory, history, the present, the future, consumption, and hoarding.
Within these spaces, there will be a camera obscura, an Ames room, peep holes, a grand piano, interactive sound and internet works, immersive environments and intimate personal narratives. These projects mix traditional media with newer technologies, combining photography and video with everything from found objects, dirt, wood, and concrete, to infusions of the more ephemeral: performance, sound, projections and interventions.

As part of  THRU THE TRAPDOOR, VIVO will present Nightmare Inductions a project by Noxious Sector in the Video Bar space and a great line-up of musicians and djs (curated by John Brennan and Hybridity) in the studio space on the closing night.

NIGHTMARE INDUCTIONS  is an interactive installation that uses brain wave entraining sound and video, to guide participant through a shared trance induction experience. Each experience focuses on a common nightmare theme: dreams of falling, dreams of forgetting and dreams of having one’s teeth fall out. Included in each installation are artworks by Noxious Sector, and imagery created by collaborators in response to the experiences. These are offered as aids to willing participants, as well as further meditations on each theme.

Nightmare Inductions is intended to challenge the imaginative willingness of the audience while exploring the creative possibilities for induction-based artworks. We think of induction as a second-order thought experiment—not simply an idea contemplated passively in one’s own mind, but an experience implanted by visualization and self-hypnosis techniques. This series of artworks is also an opportunity for audiences to gain a broader general understanding of the capacities and vulnerabilities of the human mind.