While the James F. Ranii Foyer Gallery was transformed into a mundane office-like space during the Fullerton Museum Center’s open house Saturday, there was much more to it than meets the eye.

Part of the open house was the opening reception for “Dreams and Liminality,” a photography-based exhibition created by mixed-media artist Taylor Moon Castagnari. The exhibit combines photos of familiar areas like shopping malls and airports with photos of someone, usually Castagnari herself, suspended in the air from an aerial hammock.

Castagnari said she sought an opportunity to combine her skills as an aerialist and an artist, as well as explore the contrast between banal places and the daydreams people may have in those environments. This led to her creation of the photographic series.

“When you think about liminal environments, there’s aspects that it’s frozen in time, that they have aspects of nostalgia,” Castagnari said. “It’s almost this disembodied experience, and even you have your ‘work self’ and your ‘personal self,’ and what is this ‘in-between yourself?’ I wanted to explore all of those questions.”

Liminal spaces are described as transitionary environments, akin to waiting rooms or hallways, that bridge the gap between one place and another.

Castagnari portrayed these spaces by using Photoshop to place them onto photos of her or another model suspended from a hammock taken in her home studio. She also occasionally added imagery like pools of water, light or clouds to inject a sense of surrealism.

“Floating in the ocean or floating in the air and combining those together and creating these spaces where it’s very meditative, I thought, would be interesting for people,” Castagnari said.

Beyond these pictures, which lined the walls of the gallery walkway, another room within it housed a conference room-like setting with more pictures, as well as a sculpture and video of an aerialist and cotton clouds partially adorning the walls. On the table were copies of “Uninspired Times,” a fictional newspaper Castagnari made that “reported” on the happenings of inanimate objects in her home.

In addition to Castagnari’s exhibit, the open house highlighted renovations to the museum center’s rental spaces, including the Aimee Aul Studio classroom. James F. Ranii, a board treasurer and finance chair for the museum center, estimated $2 million was spent by the state of California on the renovations.

Compared to the old classroom, which Ranii described as “dreadful,” the new classroom is intended to be versatile, fit around 30 people and be able to be rented out for $150 an hour during open hours. 

The room’s new mural “Resilience” was primarily completed by creative supervisor Shay Jones. It features six plants and was intended to honor the original owners of the land where the museum center stands.

“Because it’s so night and day how it looked from the classroom before, having this here, I think is really important to the museum,” Jones said. “It’s definitely my best work.”

With the open house, the museum center hoped to promote their rental spaces due to a recent loss in funding from the city of Fullerton. Ranii said the center is now self-sustaining under their Fullerton Museum Center Association.

“We’re looking to bring people in that might rent this place, because we need the money,” Ranii said. “It’s a great place for the community to enjoy art, music, whatever we’ve got.”

Castagnari’s father Tom Moon agrees. He asserts that small local museums like the Fullerton Museum Center help educate the public on and bring them culture, which is why work like Castagnari’s is important to showcase there.

“People need art. They need to stop and look at art and appreciate art. We all have different opinions about art, and that’s a great monologue and dialogue. We talk about the art and see what we can pull away from it,” Moon said. “Art brings community together.”

“Dreams and Liminality” will be on display until March 7.