The Design & Installation team taking down Orly Genger: Whole

It seems this exhibition was one of those you either love or hate. I for one loved it. The way it sat and overwhelmed the space and the hefty gargantuan sizes of the pieces made it feel epic every time I rode the escalators up to the galleries. Not only did the finished pieces impress me, but the amount of work put into them was equally as staggering as the size. What I loved is that you get slapped right in the face with a dose of contemporary artwork as soon as you get inside and you are forced you to think.

However, I overheard a lot of people who were irate about the artwork! What’s that, you don’t agree with me?? Visitor comments always show how passionate people are about the art in our galleries, and Whole was certainly no exception. Thanks to @katiezarich and Roz Wells I got access (shhh, don’t tell!) to our comment cards and gathered the best of the worst. In the spirit of transparency I thought I’d share a few…

There’s no place to sit in the Oval. If you’re waiting to be picked up, you can’t see anything. This rope is awful and it’s been here too long!

The “Whole” exhibit disturbs the beauty of the soaring entry space, creating an obstruction with blocks of massive nothingnous with no grace. Take them away, please.

Horrible display in the lobby. Who ever made the decision to display “Whole” needs Prozac!

The stuff in the lobby is offensive and is not perceived by me as “art.”

Orly Genger: This reminds me of the Gordian Knot in the time of Alexander the Great.

I have a comment about the exhibit in the lobby. I really like the black things but why did you put something in the lobby that we can’t touch? We have been wondering for a long time.

I thought the exhibit (Whole) was metal. I really like this and I want to touch it.

The Orly Gener rope exhibit is ugly.

I find the lobby exhibit terribly ugly, depressing, unbelievable & a great waste of money.

I feel like I’m in a fort.

New Exhibit: Takes up too much space in the lobby!

The exhibit in the oval is interesting, but please move it to another area. It does not present a welcoming image of the museum–particularly during the haledays (sic).

While I might not agree, rest assured we are reading your comments and we take them all seriously. If you are still a “Whole hater” I’ll try one more time to convert you with this beautiful video produced by IMA’s Nugget Factory.

Ok, I couldn’t resist so here’s one more beautiful photo set of the artwork on Flickr:

What happens to Whole now?

If you are wondering what happens to the artwork next, I asked Sarah Green that exact question and she said:

One of the sculptures is now part of the IMA’s permanent collection. It’s the one named “Len” that is four square columns that come together to form a larger square. The rest of the pieces are being dismantled and returned to the artist.

Up next in the Efroymson Entrance?

Coming soon to the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion: Judith Levy’s Memory Cloud. The installation will be comprised of a monumental “cloud” made from white plastic photo viewers that hang on strands of microfilament. That won’t be here until July, so stay tuned for updates.

I’m obsessed with making something that matters. I’m obsessed with working. And I believe that it is only through hard work that good work is made.

One of the most important things to me has always been to keep my hands moving, to keep making things. I worry about what I make and what it means after I make it.  I also used to think that talking about art, especially your own art, ruins it. That’s partly why I dropped out of art school. But I’ve softened on that in recent years, which is maybe a result of having gone to art school. I do talk here and there about my work and hope it won’t ruin anything, but instead reveal a bit about the way I’m thinking, at least in the moment.

Overhead shot of "Whole"

For my show at the IMA I wanted to make sculptures that could stand on their own. I had previously created pieces that were sprawling and boundless and all consuming, the structures of which relied heavily on the spaces they inhabited. But this time I attempted to make sculptures that were contained, pieces that had a beginning and an end. And pieces that could be here, there, or anywhere but are themselves wherever they are and that rely only on themselves to be what they are.

There are nine stacks in the show. I used the most reductive forms of building to create mass-accumulation and repetition. My intention was to simplify my obsessive process into its most basic elements in order to reveal it, to expose the layers of building and to create a texture that is purely based on the movement of my hand making the knots.

Corner detail

People ask me if making my work is relaxing or meditative. It’s not. Working with these ropes is physically challenging. They are big and heavy and clumsy. I sweat, I curse, and I feel like I’m wrestling with an octopus.  There is a sense of accomplishment in overcoming a physical challenge. It is through endurance, and an intense level of psychological commitment and invariance that we push through the toughest of times. There is always a struggle and there are always challenges. I am fueled by the desire to overcome them.

Orly and Joe

We all have a need to flex. Whether it’s showing off our biceps and inflating our chest or wearing high heels and feathers in our caps, we want to be bigger. We want to be better.  My work attempts to deal with the hyperbolic nature of this survival tendency. Each stack is named after a different Mr. Universe champion from the ‘60s and ‘70s. They are not my heroes, but they are big men.

There are also moments of lightness, of fragility and gentleness. I like to pretend I am a boxer dishing out a bloody beating followed by a ballerina dancing with my toes barely skimming the ground.  And then I like to imagine that my work is the product of these two people falling in love. There is precision and there is rawness. And there is the combination of the two that creates the tension that I am attracted to.

But nothing I say matters all that much. It’s what I do. I believe in action. In what I choose to leave behind. In what I take the time to devote myself to. In the end it’s the work that matters.

The first in-house video I worked on at the IMA was re-editing an African Pottery Techniques documentary shot in Burkina Faso.  At the time, it was a pretty big step for the museum – to actually do this in-house, quickly, easily and for free.  When I compare that to our latest  video release on Orly Genger’s installation “Whole”, I kind of laugh.  We shot this video in HD, incorporated Time Lapse, used a lift for certain shots and then published to YouTube.  Check it out below.

My colleague Dan Dark recently recorded the Christmas at Lilly House tour with the LH Director, Bradley Brooks in an afternoon.  Dan then finalized and edited in the space of a few hours, then uploaded it to our Guide by Cell account.  Visitors to Lilly House can access this content by using their cell phone. Our first Christmas at Lilly House involved a lot more time editing and recording, and incorporated the Dell DJ Ditty mp3 players.  I am actually laughing….but it worked at the time.  We plan on increasing our audio content across all of IMA’s collections in 2009, and I am incredibly excited about some of the concepts we are planning.  But I can’t discuss those yet…

imamuseum.org/blog is almost a year old.  It’s been a really exciting year for the blog with some superb posts from all over the museum.  I’m proud when I think that internally, the IMA supports a variety of areas blogging.  Where else can you go and hear directly from conservation, security, horticulture or an artist duo?  We’ve come a long way from the Felix Gonzalez-Torres blog (did anyone ever see that?) we setup a few years ago, and our imamuseum.org drupal based blog just a year ago.  Sometime we get it wrong.  Sometimes we get it right.

I’m also reflecting on past projects because I can’t quite share some of the upcoming projects in 2009, yet.  I’m dying to, and the second I can I will post.  The main change in the digital content we produce is an increased focus on the contemporary world.  The Toby, Contemporary department as well as the opening of 100 Acres in 2009, presents access to cutting edge artists, performers and academics.  That means content opportunities that will become audio guides, videos, and web projects.  It’s gonna be a big year, and we plan on making ‘09 the best for the museum visitor and technology-focused experiences.  It’s all about keeping the momentum.

And in closing, this is Despi’s last day at the museum.  She’s been an integral part of the IMA and New Media, a dedicated professional, supportive colleague, and more importantly, a friend.  Best of luck Darnell!