A few weeks ago I followed through on a pact with myself to visit the Indiana Museum of Art solo. The grounds in late spring are glorious and I spent as much time watching bold squirrels nibble on berries as I did experiencing the art inside the building. It’s been a while for me since I visited what rates highly as a sunny afternoon destination in Indy.
From Flickr user SillyFrog
I went upstairs to see the Adaptation installation, and was immediately drawn to the unassuming Herrera exhibit, “Les Noces”. It presents itself from outside as a placard and a pitch dark walkway leading into the unknown from which emanates the intense singing and occasional screaming of a Stravinsky scored ballet.
Hearing the unmistakably Russian 20th century music with tall chords and harsh brutal sounds, I was intrigued, but the video installation was so well protected from outside light that I was afraid I’d walk into something. Honestly, I was simply afraid of the whole exhibit, and I turned on my heel returning to the light of the museum. I eventually had to psyche myself up to enter. My initial experience of the piece was unsettling not least of which was due to my body adjusting to the levels of adrenaline my system released simply walking through the light trap.
Source image from Arturo Herrera’s two-channel digital projection Les Noces, 2007. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema & Co.
The music was harsh. I found myself wondering who performed and conducted the recording that was blasting through the room. The vocals sounded intentionally raw, and it added to the discombobulating effect of two screens each displaying two images per screen with bits of photography and drawing projected onto either end of the room without direct connection to the music being played. Here was an adaptation, the substitution being the constant animation of squiggles and what might be Bullwinkle the Moose’s right arm and torso rather than the dancers on a stage. Instead of viewing the performance as a member of an audience in a group of people organized in orderly rows the performance surrounded me, the single viewer. This created a personal experience, one that was both meditative and jarring. The abstract images lent themselves to individual projection. I watched the piece and listened to the music and simply experienced what was happening.
Given the opportunity to try and decode the images and the references to marriage and ballet or to simply observe with my eyes and ears I chose the latter. There comes a time when the meta-memes outpace themselves and all antecedents have to be used as springboards rather than the object of reference. Wugh. It was shortly after I arrived at that conclusion that the final resolution of the swelled and clacked, I shook my head back into the present, and I made my way out of the room back into the airy museum. I took a deep breath when I got out. I had gained an abstract experience I could not describe.
Not bad for a lazy Saturday.
Filed under: Art, Exhibitions, Guest Bloggers