Night Woods AT Color Factory

Night Woods by Anne Patterson
Color Factory Chicago
(Willis Tower)
233 S Wacker Drive
Chicago, IL 60606
Opened June 16th, 2022

Night Woods is the newest in the line of immersive sensorial installations by artist Anne Patterson. Building off of the themes present in Pathless Woods, Patterson invites the visitor to experience the mystery and wonder of wandering through the woods, this time, at night.

Night Woods consists of nearly 10 miles of satin ribbon. Suspended from the ceiling, these lengths of 25 different purples, greens, and blues form a sensorial forest to traverse and explore. Within the landscape, visitors may find their way through the elusive darkness to the ‘moon glow circle’, the same way one might stumble into a clearing in the woods at night.

Anne has sound-to-color synesthesia, so the lines of color that the visitor sees are the same as that which Anne sees when she hears Michael Gandolfi’s Garden of Cosmic Speculation, which also plays as part of the immersive installation. Submerged in this constructed synesthetic experience— which includes the scent of ‘moonlit air’ developed by Beau Rhee, as well as multi-media projections by Adam Larsen—the visitor departs from the museum and enters another world, one that is curious, contemplative, and at times even transcendental.

Music: Michael Gandolfi

Scent: Beau Bree Rhea

Projections: Adam Larsen

Associate Designer: Yulanda Sheih

Project Manager: Kat Choe

Studio Assistants: Rose Blanshei, Tessa Bookwalter, Teresa L. Williams, Cole Mercier, Yizhu Pan, Tucker Elkins, Mia Boulukos

Color Factory Assistants: Diana Aguilar, Sean Riley, Michelle Lilly, Gonzalo Jimenez