Drive North to Another Portal | Sensorio’s ‘DIMENSIONS’ Light Exhibit

Paso Robles’ wine and hospitality scenes are popping, and an extraordinary experience I’ve sought out two hours north is Sensorio, where Bruce Munro’s light exhibits continue to dazzle locals and tourists. Their first collaboration with outside artists is their latest exhibit, DIMENSIONS by HYBYCOZO, which landed this summer.

A friend introduced me to HYBYCOZO’s lights years ago when they were making smaller versions you could purchase for your home or office (you still can). I didn’t know that HYBYCOZO’s artists Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk had a larger vision for grand-scale versions to radiate throughout museums and public spaces worldwide. Over the years, their vision materialized from Turkey to Brazil to California, where we can explore the inner world of these artists.

After visiting DIMENSIONS with my 6-year-old son, who joyously ran around the jewel-toned garden of geometric sculptures, he said, “This could be a house if it didn’t have so many holes.” I was transported to an ethereal world of rainbow snowflakes, calming and reflecting. One man I passed said he thought the snowflake houses “hold the secrets of the universe.” My son and I left late, pulling him away from his favorites, the spinning ones.

I had the opportunity to interview co-creator Yelena Filipchuk — an international artist who was born in Lviv, Ukraine, and educated at UC Berkeley — about her latest creation.

You’ve mentioned having the vision for DIMENSIONS since 2016; what was your vision then, compared to how it came to be now?

“The idea was to create another world … a feeling that you were walking up to a village in a foreign land. For me, the idea came just as I felt the push and pull of wanting to create a family, but somehow, I felt that would cause me to leave my village and community and tension between the family and community in the U.S. I don’t feel like that is a tension experienced by people in the past.

Our main challenge was harmonizing the experience of light, sound, pattern, and movement as the scale of the project evolved. Each element had to seamlessly integrate with the others to create an immersive and cohesive experience. Allen Hulsey’s musical compositions needed to resonate with HYBYCOZO’s intricate geometric sculptures, while Lightswitch’s lighting design had to enhance and unify the entire installation. The team worked meticulously, experimenting with different configurations and interactions until they achieved a harmonious blend where the interplay of sound, light, patterns, and movement created a captivating and synchronized sensory experience for the audience.

What was your sound direction for Allen Hulsey?

We went on a special trip to Egypt with Allen, where he was performing. Every time I enjoyed the music, I would look up, and he would be making the music live right in front of us. In the age of digital music creation, I thought that was amazing. He is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in the kanun, a Turkish harp instrument. We wanted people to feel transported to a village in another world, so the music was a big part of that feeling. Something familiar yet mysterious.

How do you create the designs?

The sculptures are laser-cut steel, and we create unique designs for every project. Much of our work draws on inspirations from mathematics, science, and patterns in nature and acknowledges diverse cultural influences in pattern-making and design. Geometry and pattern-making serve as the backbone of our creative expression. It is the framework through which we navigate the complexities of form, proportion, and spatial relationships.

Patterns, both simple and complex, have a profound impact on our perception and understanding of the world. They can evoke a sense of order, balance, and aesthetic pleasure. Pattern-making and geometry offer us a means of storytelling and communication. These patterns serve as conduits for deeper exploration, provoking introspection and contemplation to uncover the underlying symbols embedded within.

What feelings do you want people to experience through DIMENSIONS?

Four of the artworks allow people to walk inside of them and become totally immersed. It creates a sense of a shared experience since everyone has to pass through a portal. The portals act as thresholds, inviting visitors to enter another dimension where the boundaries between art and audience blur. As people interact within these spaces, their movements and presence influence the atmosphere, creating a dynamic and ever-changing environment.

This shared passage through the portals heightens the sense of community and encourages dialogue and introspection among visitors. By designing these interactive elements, we aim to create a profound and memorable experience that resonates individually and collectively.

Why are they gold?

We wanted the sculptures to have a warm, natural glow, and gold is perfect for that. They look like jewels with colorful lights streaming through.

You’ve had spinning structures before. Why did you choose to have some spinning structures and some stationary for DIMENSIONS?

We love an interactive element. Kids enjoy spinning them and seeing the shadows move. It takes the installation from just a sculpture to something with movement and time-based, which is really the fourth dimension.

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As I drove my son back to the Hotel S.L.O., where we stayed that one memorable night, headlights leading the way, I was sleepy but contemplative. As our heads hit the feathery pillows in our room, I wondered if my son would dream of the other world we’d just visited, if it had opened new pathways for questioning and creativity. I felt it had for me, a reminder of the awe of the universe and the connections and dimensions we enter and exit throughout life.

Sensorio is currently open Thursday through Sunday evenings. See sensoriopaso.com for more information.