Art can be selfish. I definitely have times when I’m writing “just for me” because performing your art without an audience can be extremely therapeutic. I think that’s why so many people are silent in galleries—they don’t want to disturb anyone so everyone can have their own experience; effectively making each piece you pass “just for you.”

I don’t think Julianne Swartz had me in mind when she constructed Terrain, but maybe I was more in the process than one would think. Terrain is a contemporary work that was originally in the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion but has been re-strategized to spider web the Caroline Marmon Fesler Gallery in the Contemporary Art Collection. It has a network of speakers that hang over head from a rainbow of wire.

The speakers play the voices of 37 different volunteers whispering. They start and end on their own accord and echo thorough out the space. As you move through the room and pick-up on varying voices it’s like you’re the conductor of 37 hushed ghosts. Basically, it’s really creepy. Logging time in the gallery, I watched quite a few people enter, get freaked out and leave. However, those who stay just long enough to read the label are rewarded.

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Filed under: Art, Contemporary, The Collection

Brooklyn-based conceptual artist William Lamson is creating the newest installation for the IMA’s Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion. This expansive sculptural and sound installation is composed of used communication towers and a series of audio components. The hybrid structure, which has been reconstructed so that the tower appears to fold in on itself, acts as an antenna to pick up a weather radio signal from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The radio signal triggers vibrations within the tower, and rather than transmitting the broadcaster’s voice throughout the surrounding space, instead the sound of the vibrating tower as it is amplified through speakers mounted within the hollow legs of the structure proliferates.

Lamson first began experimenting with resonant sound during his recent Binaural / Nodar Artist Residency in Portugal. The artist attached rocks to a metal railing on a bridge that spanned a river. The rocks were then attached to bottles that floated in the river via long strings. When the bottles bobbed in the river, the rocks struck the railing, creating a low-frequency, ringing sound captured through microphones Lamson affixed to the metal.

Railing, rocks, string, and bottles in Nodar, Portugal.

The river.

Similarly, the artist often develops devices that harness the power inherent within the natural environment in his practice. In 2009 Lamson created a series of automatic drawing apparatuses that harness the power of wind or water. Lamson attached a drawing utensil to his inventions, which then created fine, detailed works determined by the surrounding weather conditions. His project for the IMA will similarly make apparent the unseen forces that surround us, as a radio signal (also linked with the weather) is made audible and tactile through the vibrations in the tower.

Lamson’s automatic drawing titled "Jan 28, 09 1130AM–230PM, Colonia Valdense, Uruguay"

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Filed under: Art, Contemporary, Exhibitions

Who Cares?  Me, and now everybody.

It’s impossible to attend every conservation-related conference or symposium. This summer, I missed what was perhaps one of the best conferences about the conservation of contemporary art in the past 10 years: Contemporary Art: Who Cares? Research and Practices in Contemporary Art Conservation. It was organized by the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN), Foundation for the Conservation of Contemporary Art in the Netherlands (SBMK), and the University of Amsterdam (UvA).  The symposium was an activity of the International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA).  It was held in Amsterdam June 9-11, 2010.

Shortly after the conference concluded, I interviewed Karen te Brake-Baldock on Art:21’s blog about the initial outcomes. When I was working on that interview and considering what I had missed, it occurred to me that, though there were many great talks, I really would have liked to hear those by Charles Esche, the Director of van Abbemuseum and Peter van Mensch, professor of cultural history at the Reinwardt Academie (Amsterdam). Well, now we can all hear these talks, and the rest of that were presented.

Charles Esche:

Charles Esche – Van Abbemuseum from incca on Vimeo.

Peter van Mensche:

Peter van Mensch – Reinwardt Academie from incca on Vimeo.

Both talks challenge us to re-think some of the purposes of museums and the display of artwork within them.  I’ll not go into a summary or any kind of critique of any of the talks, but instead simply encourage you to go check the complete list out.  Here’s a complete list of the talks.  Thanks, INCCA, for making the conference available online and letting me “attend” from my own home.

Filed under: Conservation

Here’s a post from Ben Valentine, who’s volunteered with me for the past year. He’s not interested in a career in conservation, but rather an artist who shows frequently and has designs on a MFA. He also runs the blog Contemporary Art Truck.

For the past 16 weeks I’ve been volunteering my Monday mornings in the Variable Art Conservation Lab to clean and maintain the 6 room-size installations in the Tara Donovan exhibition, Untitled, which closes in less than 2 weeks on August 1st. Back in March I volunteered to help construct these complex installations under the guidance of Tara, her assistants, and alongside 15 other volunteers. The initial installation took this team more than 60 hours over the course of 8 intense days.

On the night of the opening party I remember walking through the exhibition with a friend and proudly pointing to certain areas of installations in which I worked the most. I talked about the specific areas in Untitled (Plastic Cups) where I sat and stacked cups in order to execute Tara’s plan. And then, after Tara and her assistants returned to New York, I became Richard’s go-to guy for cleaning and maintaining the installations.

Untitled (Plastic Cups) 2006, Courtesy of Artie and Millie Glimcher

Looking back I think I had a false sense of agency on opening night, a false sense that my aesthetic had entered the installations in some way. Now, after spending all this time with Tara’s artworks, I’ve thought a lot about her process, and along the way regained perspective on the minor role I played in Tara’s work. Tara’s art is the unique process she discovered for each instance. Tara’s ideas have the artistic merit; I was simply a means to help realize them here in Indianapolis. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Conservation, Exhibitions, Guest Bloggers

As the conservator of objects and variable art, I’m often presented with new and interesting challenges.  The current exhibition in the McCormack Forefront galleries is no exception: I mean, after all, how many conservators get to help take care of over 1,000 feet of roller coaster track?  Fortunately there’s a team of us that works together to make sure Distance is working—and that means checking in on it every day (including the weekends) to make sure all the balls are rolling.

I took two of my children with me the other weekend when I came in to check on the installation.  Because they often critique exhibitions at the IMA and other museums we visit, I thought I would include a picture that pretty much captures what they thought.  So take it from Nolan and Maeve, this is an all ages show.

Filed under: Art, Conservation, Exhibitions, New Media