Pop Up Detroit has the honor of exhibiting work of the talented Amber Elle! Be sure to check out Amber Elle’s installation on Noel Night, Dec. 3rd from 5pm-midnight.
Amber Lesicki formed Infinite Dimensions with fellow Ann Arbor artists Bec Young and Leif Ritchey. The original incarnarion of ID never sold any product, they only celebrated the trashtopia of free living of anarchic gutter punks. From this scene emerged fellow artists Nate Young, Aaron Dilloway, Fred Thomas, Michael Troutman, Lindsey Karty, Mary Theifles and many other talented artists and musicians.
As a part of this unique and interesting scene, Infinite Dimensions would create a story line and call out to the many skilled members of our scene to bring our ideas to life by collaborating on costumes and projection and lighting ideas. One of our best shows started with a found sky light used as the ship that brought a lost Princess to the Party World and ended with a party dragon that took seven people to come to life. Our best shows were curated by Rich Rice and his partner Holly, called Fashion for Food, a benefit for our favorite local activists in Food Not Bombs.
After many of our talented friends left Ann Arbor, Amber started to perform and dance with batons, chains and fingers lit on fire. She has performed at the legendary Motor club in Hamtramck during DJ Hell’s set. She performed on stage with Ectomorph live shows at the Y2K New Year’s for Drop Base Network, and also at the Knitting Factory in New York City. The venue was so impressed by the heat of the performance that Ectomorph was actually banned for life from the Knitting Factory.
The first Interdimensional Transmissions’ Samhain parties happened at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, starting in 2000. This was a chance to combine fire performance, dance art sculpture and environmental transformation. It was important to I.T. label founder BMG that people felt like they were somewhere else, other than the Blind Pig. Amber achieved this goal by covering the entire bar, first year with black plastic, next with all red fabric, simmered in rave puke and borrowed from Richie Hawtin’s crew, finally covered with news paper for the third year at the Blind Pig. Samhain 2011 was transformed with an interplanetary cosmic theme, using parachutes and black paper to create a feeling of partying in outer space.
Infinite Dimensions continued to cultivate run-way style fashion shows using themed t-shirts, and tube material, but added another dimension by cutting up the model’s outfits live on the run-way. These performance based fashion shows were seen at the second closing of the 555 Gallery in Ypsi, at the “I heart” show at Oslo, and at Dalley In The Alley in 2007.
In 2006, Amber and her husband BMG purchased a house and moved the operations to Detroit. Amber has been practicing and mastering the ideas of environmental transformation in Detroit’s raw and gritty spaces such as the Bohemian House and most recently the Wet House. She has been hard at work making cold empty waiting room-esque night clubs like the Works or the old 5 Elements Gallery into warm, inviting, energizing spaces that inspire thought, dancing, and friendship. The event Amber is most known for transforming is called No Way Back. Known by some as the “best after-party” of the Movement festival. NWB has even been sourced out by the Bunker crew in Williamsburg, parachutes and all.
3 core themes of Amber’s work:
1. re-use, recycle: a sitting object is much happier when put to use. objects not in use could be used in a different manner than originally intended so they may become useful.
2. transforming spaces w/ found and newly made art and sculpture
3. finding beauty and new use in un-conventional or uninteresting places