FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Robert Kawika Sheer: Spirit Shadows
June 19th through August 14th, 2004
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 19th, 6-8pm
Michael Dawson Gallery
535 North Larchmont Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90004
(323) 469-2186, FAX (323) 469-9553
E-mail, <andrew@dawsonbooks.com>
Web site, <http://www.dawsonbooks.com>
Robert Kawika Sheer, “Fairies levitating airplanes in the night sky – LAX”, 2002
Michael Dawson Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by Robert Kawika Sheer: Spirit Shadows. On an excursion to the Mojave Desert in 1999, Sheer discovered an innovative method for creating images at night. A large-format camera takes a single exposure lasting from five minutes to six hours. After the shutter opens, Sheer and other performers enter the frame and become part of the composition. Strobe flashes record their silhouettes, which are then transformed by moonlight into shadow figures within ghostly auras. The scene is populated by as many “spirits” as Sheer chooses to create, and the resulting pictures reveal a world of magic and delight. Set in ethereal landscapes that are at once strange and familiar, Sheer’s pictures prove LA to be a City of Angels.
Robert Kawika Sheer was born in Anaheim, California, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. He began taking photographs in high school, earned a Bachelor’s degree at Loyola Marymount in 1981, and has continued to study photography at Santa Monica College. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Ingela.
