A dreary night at the Oakland Cemetery lit up April 17 with a preview of the third annual Illumine installation, a series of light and shadow focused works weaved throughout the historic graveyard for two weekends in April.
The rain or shine art event will run April 18-21 and 25-28, with live entertainment, bars and pop-up shops as guests explore seven featured installations themed on “Out of the Shadows.”
(Photo by Kelly Jordan.)
“It’s a great way for us to shine a light sort of literally and figuratively on Oakland and its many stories,”Historic Oakland Foundation Director Richard Harker said.
When the Oakland Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the Historic Oakland Foundation was established to oversee upkeep and restoration of the property, facilitating projects like the restoration of the Bell Tower and construction of a visitor’s center.
The foundation also hosts special events like Halloween tours and the Dia de Muertos festival to draw in thousands of visitors. Harker hopes Illumine can be a new way for people to engage with the so-called “good, bad and ugly” tales tucked into the graveyard.
“This is an event all about light and dark, but, you know, when we talk about out of the shadows, we mean, you know, uncovering some stories that have perhaps been a little bit hidden, or maybe erased and sort of shining some light on them,” Harker said. “But we also mean literally playing with shadow as a tool.”
Seven contributors are featured in different areas of the cemetery:
- “Infinity Shadows in Oakland” by David “WAVI” Muehlenkamp allows guests to look into infinity mirrors.
- “Left Unsaid” by Stefanie Wardrep has guests take words, secrets and confession from the darkness and “send them into the light.”
- “Aurora Avenue” by Philip Cheng uses light and shadow to herald in the spring.
- “Cast your Shadow” by Black Label Design Company lets attendees participate in creating shadow art and images.
- “Moon Garden” by Allen Meredith and Phillip Cheng evokes imagery of moonlit nights and silhouettes.
- “Into the Light ” by DJJRHO is a soundscape soundtrack inspired by the cemetery.
- “Attracted to Light” by Cooper Sanchez and Steve Bransford plays with moths, living and dead as a metaphor for attraction to light.
Cooper Sanchez has long maintained the cemetery and previously serve as Illumine Creative Director before stepping down from the role for 2024. Now, his installation is tucked into the greenhouse.
Guests can walk through a long hall with video of moths playing on each side before entering the main room, with living and dead moths on display. Sanchez is an artist who frequently works with light, but he started breeding moths in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“I wanted something fun for my little girl,” Sanchez said.
The pandemic hobby bloomed into a lasting interest, and Sanchez is a wealth of information on the winged creatures. Other volunteers called him “mothman” while he showed off discarded cocoons of different breeds and compared details about the forms.
While the night is focused on the art, the cemetery is open to explore after dark. Stained glass windows inside the mausoleum are lit up to show the artistic detail inside different resetting places.
“I like to think of it as a little bit of education, a little bit of entertainment and a little bit of surprise and delight,” Harker said.
He hopes Illumine can continue down Oakland Cemetery’s path of becoming a “community asset.” The historic locale has hosted summer camps and workforce developments to “change the idea of what a cemetery can be.”
“Cemeteries got a bad rap at the turn of the 20th century, when it was that very macabre Edgar Allen Poe stuff, the spooky graveyard,” Harker said.
But the director said Oakland Cemetery was one of the city’s first public green spaces since the city bought it in 1850. People often held picnics and carriage rides among the headstones. Rather than a fearsome destination, Harker hopes it can be that public green space again – and connect locals and transient residents alike to the history of Atlanta.
“We are able to, you know, bring that history to life and really connect people with the past,” Harker said.
Illumine runs April 18 to 21 and April 25 to 28. Tickets and a full musical guest schedule are available at oaklandcemetery.com.
