Wonderspaces is back in San Diego for its third year. It’s an art gallery of its own approach: instead of paintings and sculptures, visitors see art rendered through direct experience of space, sounds and touch.
This year's show is called “In Common.”
"The theme is a show about the idea of empathy," said Kendall Warson, the creative director for Wonderspaces. "The idea is that all of the artworks encompass this commonality and collectivity of our shared human experience."
One of the artists is Margaret Noble. Her work “Drift” is a small room full of ropes with various textured materials covering the walls and floor. The room is equipped with a headset and goggles that are used to effectively blindfold someone experiencing the artwork. A visitor then has 3 1/2 minutes to navigate the small room, experiencing the art through soundscape and touch.
“So you’re feeling things underfoot. You’re feeling ropes. You’re feeling the walls. And then really your ears. Your ears are really kind of guiding you and sending you signals from all around," Noble said. "And you will make the choices on where you want to move. And how the visuals will come to your mind — your mind-sight. Not the literal visual but what comes into your head. Even strangers will talk to each other about what happened, so I think that shared knowledge relates to this idea of what we have in common and how we connect. The key is to just let go with their bodies and their minds and their ears and see what emerges.”
Wonderspaces opens June 7 at the B Street Pier. It originally launched in 2016, and now has shows in Phoenix with plans to expand to Philadelphia and Austin this year.
