- Vela Phelan, Shadow Initiation Spell, Harbor Gallery, UMass Boston, 2012, image@Alice Vogler
Shadow Initiation Spell was a merging of Buddha and Baby Jesus, time and space, mind and body, and life and death –all in a single energy form. A subconscious and earnest wish was the foundation for the alchemical transmutation taking place in the space during the artist’s intervention. Random video-rhythm, sonic transmissions and flickering fleeting doors opened the portal beyond the symbolic and sensorial duality that the performer and viewer experience.
Shadow Initiation Spell was two live actions: the first one was a 3 hour action on the opening reception night January 26 2012, the other a six hour culminating action on Sunday February 5 2012.
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Vela Phelan is a Boston time based artist. He is an active member of the New England art community through his collaborations with Jeff Huckleberry as JV, as a member of the sound-ART/performance group GangClanMafia and as a solo action artist and VJ. Vela has been actively creating since 1994 both nationally, internationally and in the World Wide Web. He believes in magnifying the energy of objects, sounds and actions while blending subconscious with spirit and allowing the unknown to present itself. Vela seeks to transform and alter modern and ancient energies into a new paradigm by creating ritual and giving life to mundane objects that are beatified through ceremony. His spirit animal is a black deer.