Lori Hepner
Lori Hepner is an artist working in photography, new media performance, and community centered public art projects. Her practice, Drawing with Light, aims to make the invisible visible through movement, light, and time.
Category: Artist/Individual
Discipline: Public Art
Program Affiliations: Artist Roster
About Lori Hepner
Lori Hepner
Preferred Pronouns: she/her
Lori.Hepner@gmail.com
http://www.LoriHepner.com
Larimer Caryatids was an installation by artist Lori Hepner at Bakery Square in Pittsburgh, PA. Two 16' tall facade figures grace the front of this building with an adjacent 4k video projection.
Larimer Caryatids
Larimer Caryatids references the Greek female figures acting as architectural columns. The figures were created from silhouette portraits created in new media workshops held with two Elementary schools in the Pittsburgh Larimer neighborhood. Using programmable LEDs to draw with light in real time to create portraits the students were integral to the realization of the project.
The students also drew in the real-time projections using handheld LEDs as their classmates walked behind them with the 6’ programmable LEDs. Using this imagery, I created these 16.5’ tall figures of girls dancing that hold some of the silhouettes of their classmates. Printed as Dye Sublimation Prints using Chromaluxe EXT aluminum panels, the work was displayed on the façade for 6 months.
Adjacent to the figures, a bank of windows holds a 4k video projection in the evening where the 42’ video loop that I created using 99% of the workshop light-painting footage. This looping video allows everyone who participated in the project to be able to see themselves represented in the artwork that is displayed at the Bakery Square Development that sits at the edge of their neighborhood.
Installed from December 2021 through June 2022 at BKSQ, 6425 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA.
Air Above Us by artist Lori Hepner is a site specific artwork installed at the Carrie Blast Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Summer 2021 as a part of River of Steel's Alloy PGH program.
AIr Above Us
Artist Lori Hepner had a 3-month residency with the community at the Braddock Carnegie Library Association and at Rivers of Steel, where she held light painting workshops on the Air Above Us project theme. The light painting portraits of community members were turned into Augmented Reality videos that could be played at 10 different locations around the Carrie Blast Furnaces site. To get the project information onto visitors’ mobile devices, she casted a 3D QR code out of aluminum that triggers a link to the project website that also has the AR app download links. The 8- 10.5’ x 4’ banners installed on the side of the powerhouse use graffiti letters from around the Carrie Blast Furnace site to spell out Air Above Us, which acts as the key for where to look for the site-specific AR videos.
The Color Beechview Project was a community centered project with artist Lori Hepner in Pittsburgh, PA in 2018.
Color Beechview
Artist Lori Hepner ran three light-painting workshops at the Beechview Healthy Active Living Center where portraits of the community were created light-painting and real-time projection. At the conclusion of the community workshops, Hepner used the light painting projections of the intergenerational art making, which were saved as videos to be used as source material, to create a series of 5 façade murals for the building. At the conclusion of the community workshops, Hepner used the light painting projections of the intergenerational art making, which were saved as videos to be used as source material, to create a 9’ x 20’ T-Car Wrap Mural that was on a Red-Line T car for 3 months.
Design Team Collaborators: Pittsburgh Civic Art and Public Design Division, Pittsburgh CitiParks, Beechview Healthy Active Living Center, and Lively Pittsburgh.
Project Location: Beechview Healthy Active Living Center, 1555 Broadway Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15216
