Art with the audience

Attendees at an exhibition got the chance to participate in a work of art Saturday at the Brand Library Gallery.

Dancers molded their bodies into shapes imagined by a Los Angeles-based artist and led audience members at the exhibit opening of “Circles in the Square” to the gallery’s windows, where they could take part in the exhibit by placing vinyl pieces on the glass. The pieces were abstract shapes created to represent different aspects of the earth’s environment and ecosystem.

Artist Cheryl Walker envisioned the dancers’ performance and audience interaction as a central element of her “Window on the World” artwork. The art piece was designed to engage the audience to take part in the environment during the exhibit’s opening night, she said.

When Walker met up with the other four artists, whose works are also on display in the exhibition, she noticed the windows along a wall of the gallery and decided to create an art piece from the windows, she said.

“I saw the trees and noticed the different shapes they created,” Walker said. “It was completely created on site.”

She then commissioned the help of dancers Liz Curtis and Martha Carrascosa, who is an international student at Glendale Community College’s Dance Department.

Curtis and Carrascosa choreographed a dance based on Walker’s art piece.

The dance demonstrated a sense of peacefulness that engaged the audience’s involvement, Carrascosa said.

“You have to be really, really, focused,” she said. “You have to be full of energy.”

The dance was more artistic than technical because the dancers created various forms with their bodies, the college’s dance professor Dora Krannig said.

“It was beautiful,” she said.

Carrascosa said Walker’s other art works, including a piece entitled “Waterfall IV,” inspired her movement throughout the dance.

Walker’s colorful vinyl piece “Waterfall IV,” which hangs from the gallery’s ceiling and drapes to the floor, is the largest in the exhibit, which also displays works by Yesung Kim, Barbara Kolo, Susan Sironi and Luke Van Hook. The theme of the exhibit is circles and bright colors, mallery manager and art librarian Cathy Billings said.

Walker’s piece was created to show growth, transformation and renewal of the environment, she said.

The piece also demonstrates the downfall of the environment due to the carelessness of humans to take care of the earth’s ecosystem, Walker said. She hopes her art piece with inspire people to be active in improving the environment.

“If we don’t take care of our water, pretty soon our water will look like vinyl,” she said.

Glendale resident Patti Dupre was inspired by the exhibit’s art works.

“The pieces are startling,” she said. “It’s very refreshing and the textures are exciting.”

The exhibit will be on display until Sept. 5 at the library’s gallery.

 VERONICA ROCHA covers public safety and the courts. She may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at veronica.rocha@latimes.com.