The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
FireFish begins downtown displays
A Lorain video artist kicked off the downtown displays for the 2021 FireFish Festival.
The fall arts fest was postponed last year due to the pandemic.
This year, FireFish Arts will modify its programming by offering displays and exhibits from area artists, in conjunction with businesses and spaces in downtown Lorain.
“These new events and programs are being designed to be accessed in a number of ways, including virtual and live-streamed as well as those that can be experienced ‘in-person’ and live,” said Ryan Craycraft, community arts manager for the festival. “All provide opportunities to get to know the art and artists of their community.”
The inaugural work is “Satellite TV: Remembering Lorain from the Stratosphere.”
It is a compilation of “satellite images, multi-screen technology, archival materials and 21st century footage to explore anecdotes of “The International City” with the most powerful technology of the past, present, and future,” according to the project’s official description.
The footage is recorded on VHS tapes that play on televisions in the front window of Union Town Provisions, 422 Broadway.
Contributing artist Hiatt Hernon is involved in the programming.
“Watching and editing this historic footage at the Lorain Historical Society has been a blast and seeing these images of the past has given me a new appreciation for the details of the community around me each day,” Hernon. “FireFish hasn’t only given me opportunities to present the art I make to my community for the first time, but has also encouraged me to see Lorain through a new lens.”
A 2014 alumnus of Lorain High School, Hernon earned an honors degree in media arts and studies at Ohio University.
He has performed live shows across Ohio under the alias “marker 1” and produced numerous short and feature length projects.
The FireFish exhibit is Hernon’s first public project in his hometown.
The window show allows people to view it at their leisure and with space to remain safe as a precaution from COVID-19.
In a way, Hernon said the pandemic allowed him a means to make a video project.
He credited the Lorain Historical Society for its collection of films about Lorain.
The selection ranges from family home movies to documentaries about the history of steel production.
Much of that exists on VHS tapes that Hernon has digitized — and reused on VHS tapes, a twist Hernon said he and the historical society staff noted.
Hernon supplemented that imagery with footage he shot himself and with Google Earth that dates back to 1994.
“There’s a lot of interesting stuff that you can kind of map from the sky,” he said.
The images from that time are not as clear as more current pictures, but they show changes in the city, even in a relatively short period of time.
Historically, steel production shaped the development of South Lorain. A more recent example deals with Lorain’s former high schools.
“When I left in 2014, by the time I got back they had closed down or tore down both high school buildings I was in and a new one was already built,” Hernon said.
The window installation can be viewed from 1 to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday at Union Town Provisions in downtown Lorain.
The exhibit began in March and will continue at least through the first weekend of April.