Dec. 21, 2010 - Issue #792 : In Case of Holiday Break Glass
Back Words
Hol-LED Jol-LED Christmas
Maisie's Magical Christmas House
Maybe I'm just feeling sentimental this time of year, but I love all the lights up all over the city right now. Obviously, I am not alone. I was among throngs last Sunday on a short tour of the city's best and brightest Christmas houses. People were loading out of chartered buses and flocking in droves to the elaborate shows of lights and animatronics.
It is a cultural phenomenon worth investigating. Fairy lights, as they are known in Europe, have a long history, rooted in the German tradition of illuminated trees. The Christmas Festival of Lights, one of the first outdoor displays of its kind, occurred in 1927 in Natchitoches, Louisiana. After outdoor electric lights became accessible to the masses, and tract housing became the norm in the 1960s, the custom of outlining houses with lights emerged.
There is something poetic about average people putting all of their effort into a light show once a year. For many, it is the closest thing to art that they will ever create. It might not be considered a work of fine art in the proper sense of the word, but there is something to be said for the element of folk art in Maisie's Magical Christmas House (9619 - 144 Avenue) and others like it around town. Formally speaking, they have a unified all-over composition, often including the coordination of sound and movement to capture and lead the eye around the piece. Like visionary environments built by outsider artists, these borderline-obsessive sculptural installations incorporate religious and traditional subject matter to create a fantasy world of the creators' imagination. I admire the Maisie Dolynchuks of the city for their contribution to our visual culture through the production of large scale decorative art. V
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