Travel in Light Years
August 27 - November 12, 2022
Galveston Artist Residency Gallery, Galveston, Texas

Full show documentation, taken on September 29, 2022 at 4:07pm.

Travel in Light Years was a large solo show held at the gallery at the Galveston Artist Residency from August 27th - November 5th, 2022. The installation was designed to interact with the natural sunlight that enters the space throughout the duration of the day as the Earth rotates. At different moments, the beams of light coming through the large gallery windows engaged suspended artifacts excavated around the gallery venue, hung using neon twine. Windows were coated with a dichromatic film that create different hues depending on light intensity, relating to the time of day.

Working in installation, I generally rarely make individual pieces of art, instead opting to work by project, where many different facets of media come together to make one whole. The work utilizes photography, mark making, performance and installation to document and explore psychic environments of intersections, systems and networks through time while using myself as a queer coded conduit. For this particular body of work, I was working with the site to explore an idea “interplacement,” or what it is like to embody realities at different points in time. The majority of artifacts in the pieces were excavated from open building sites around the installation point, where it is incredibly easy to find a material history literally just below the surface of ground. Those artifacts were then hung in the shape of a vessel, a device to help traverse a voyage of inner and outer space. Using this vessel, it is an exploration that results in a large mapping based off of environmental recollection which serves as a nerve center to explore, document, and connect various personal and collective histories.

Timelapse of light moving throughout the gallery during the day, starting early morning and finishing in late afternoon.

Project Blue Book files from Galveston Beach.

As the earth rotated throughout the day, the sun would enter the gallery through different windows, and reflect light off the photographs in the show.

Detail, Late Afternoon Light

As the late afternoon sun came into the gallery space through westward facing glass doors, purple/magenta-hued light would interact with displayed artifacts laid out on sheets of plexi, reflecting the rays. All these transparent surfaces were coated with a dichroic film that was both super reflective and changed color depending on light intensity. All artifacts were mined locally, from dig sites around Galveston Island, giving clues to the history of inhabitance: scraps of metal used in shipping, horseshoes, iron signage, railroad spikes and so on.

Detail, Night View of Artifacts

A closer look at some of the artifacts displayed in the installation. This image was taken at night, when no outside natural light was interacting with the dichroic-film-coated-plexi “shelves”. All artifacts were mined locally, from dig sites around Galveston Island, giving clues to the history of inhabitance: scraps of metal used in shipping, horseshoes, iron signage, railroad spikes and so on.

Detail, Mid Afternoon Light

As the afternoon sun came into the gallery space through southward facing windows situated towards the ceiling, yellow-hued light would interact with displayed artifacts laid out on sheets of plexi, reflecting the rays. All these transparent surfaces were coated with a dichroic film that was both super reflective and changed color depending on light intensity. All artifacts were mined locally, from dig sites around Galveston Island, giving clues to the history of inhabitance: scraps of metal used in shipping, horseshoes, iron signage, railroad spikes and so on.

Press & Links:
- To Shine, to Appear, to Show: J. R. Roykovich at the Galveston Artists Residency (by Saúl Hernández Vargas for Glasstire)
- Paranormal Art: A Conversation with J.R. Roykovich (via William Sarradet for Glasstire)
- Galveston Artist Residency page and documentation: https://galvestonartistresidency.org/travel-in-lightyears

Further Press:
Galveston gallery seeks ghost stories to inhabit new exhibition (via Trace Harris for the Galveston Daily News)