Which helps explain why DiDomenico spent the last two years building a cave. And not just any cave. This one is made from sheets formed with 60,000 mica chips, all meticulously sewn together by hand. Some of the transparent mica chips encase the most fragile of natural treasures: butterfly wings, iridescence upon iridescence. Some are interwoven with colorful bits of international trash that Di-Domenico solicited from friends around the world. But she got the inspiration to make the cave after spending some time spelunking. “It’s like scuba diving for the first time,” she explains. “You see this whole other world underground, and you can walk on top of it and not even know it’s there.”
After months of taking over her house, DiDomenico’s finished work, Pellucid, goes on view today in the Project Gallery at MCA Denver, 1485 Delgany Street. Put together, it’s a sparkle-dusted walk-through environment, complete with rock-salt stalactites and a profound sense of the underground. A reception for Pellucid and the concurrent Over the River: A Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado, a Work in Progress takes place October 1; for details, visit www.mcadenver.org.
Sept. 28-Jan. 16, 2010
