By Joyce Kryszak
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-925521.mp3
Buffalo, NY – Last night, downtown pedestrians got a quite thrill. They looked up to see international high wire artist Didier Pasquette walking 300 feet in the air.
Pasquette made his way effortlessly along a slim wire strung between the two liberty building statues. Earlier in the day, WBFO's Joyce Kryszak talked with Pasquette and organizers about the unusual opening to a regional art exhibit.
The theme of this year's Beyond in Western New York art show is alternating currents. It harkens back to the region's legacy of a war of currents between Edison and Tesla. And the idea for the multi-venue exhibit was for regional artists to explore oscillating currents of all kinds - both literal and conceptual. So, who better to kick-off the exhibit than someone who creates art out of thin air. French high wire artist Didier Pasquette says, for him, creating a line in space is a thing of beauty.
But of course the symbolism for exhibit curators was connecting the region's history of power with the daredevils who came to Niagara Falls to create their own legacies. International art consultant Bruce Ferguson says they wanted to capture the romance of the region.
No one has been allowed to walk across the gorge since the late 1800's. But Pasquette is scheduled to perform another high wire walk above Old Falls Street on Sunday with the nearby gorge as his backdrop.