Harlem Fine Arts Show 2026 Interactive Media Wall
For the 18th annual Harlem Fine Arts Show (HFAS18) at The Glasshouse in New York City, motion and visual experience designer Moriah Rodriguez collaborated with Spotlight Artist Fitgi Saint-Louis to translate the artist’s signature imagery into an interactive media experience for the exhibition floor.
HFAS18 brought together more than seventy artists from across the African Diaspora under the theme “Art for Technology: Art as Healing. History as Power. Legacy in Motion.” As the fair’s featured artist, Saint-Louis’ work embodied this theme through vibrant paintings that explore identity, remembrance, and interconnected cultural lineage through bold figures and geometric abstraction.
Rodriguez developed an interactive motion installation based on Saint-Louis’ widely recognized painting Black Sunflower, which served as the visual centerpiece of the fair’s promotional campaign and appeared across exhibition materials throughout the venue.
To translate the painting into a dynamic digital form, Rodriguez first deconstructed the artwork into individual visual elements using Adobe Photoshop, isolating petals, seeds, and geometric forms so they could function as independent animation components. These elements were then reconstructed in Adobe After Effects, where Rodriguez designed a looping motion study in which the sunflower opens and closes in a rhythmic, breathing cycle—suggesting growth, renewal, and the living energy of the artwork.
Building on this foundational animation, Rodriguez developed an interaction logic system for the installation. The motion study defined how individual sunflowers would respond when activated by visitor movement, allowing the artwork to shift from a static image into a responsive field of motion.
Working in collaboration with the exhibition’s media production partner W Labs, Rodriguez’s motion system was implemented as a grid-based interactive wall composed of multiple animated sunflowers. As visitors moved through the space, sensors triggered individual blooms to open and close across the screen, creating a dynamic choreography between the audience and the artwork.
The result transformed Saint-Louis’ original painting into a living digital environment—one where the visual language of the work could expand into space and time while remaining rooted in the artist’s original aesthetic.
By bridging painting, motion design, and responsive media, the installation extended the themes of the exhibition: connecting cultural storytelling, technology, and collective experience.
Process
How Motion Direction is translated into Creative Technology
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