“The Flowers of Popular Victories,” Tellaro – Chuck Sperry

Chuck Sperry’s multi-media art installation at the Oratorio di Santa Maria in Selaa in the remote Ligurian village of Tellaro, Italy was an evocative and deftly subversive repurposing of an historic 17th Century church into a pagan temple of San Francisco Psychedelia for one week last June. In the process Sperry reconsecrated the deconsecrated building with 21st Century humanist ideals, displaying his large scale silkscreened figurative art works. Sperry’s pieces were presented within the church in an arrangement reminiscent of an ancient chapel, in related pairs, as if they had withstood the ages there, illuminated solely by a dusky, adorational candlelight for a portion of each evening’s program. An original soundscape was commissioned by Sperry from world renown composer Franz Treichler (singer of The Young Gods), and in homage San Francisco legend Bill Ham was commissioned by Sperry to create an hour-long psychedelic light painting which was brightly projected on the facade of the church for each of the six nights of the event. Attendees travelled from the United States, France, Switzerland, and from all over the region – all drawn in to see this unique art event. 

The film below presents a 6 minute segment of one of the 6 evenings in which Bill Ham’s light painting was projected on the facade of the church.

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