Art of the Senses November 4, 2017–January 28, 2018 out of Sight!
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Out of Sight! Art of the Senses November 4, 2017–January 28, 2018 Out of Sight! Art of the Senses brings together contemporary works of art that actively engage with how our bodies meet the wider world through the five basic senses. By inviting us not only to look but also to listen, smell, touch, and even taste, these works challenge the traditional association of art with vision, expanding what it means to experience and interact with a work of art. Emerging in the later twentieth century, new art forms— including performance, sound, and installation art—have brought art “viewing” into closer alignment with the multisensory and participatory nature of everyday life. At the same time, by making the act of sensation strange and unfamiliar, these new forms also prompt us to examine the powerful role of our senses in shaping our world—a topic of particular importance to diverse artists working today. Throughout the exhibition, major works from the later twentieth century by artists such as Lucas Samaras, Nam June Paik, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres provide a historical framework for more recent works by international artists including Do Ho Suh, Valeska Soares, and Nari Ward. The intimacy of these artworks appeals to the senses—we feel, taste, smell, or hear each of them on a highly personal level—while it also renegotiates the terms of spectatorship and the relationship between contemporary art and everyday life. Photography without flash is encouraged unless otherwise noted. Share your experience with #albrightknox. This exhibition is organized by Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director Janne Sirén, Deputy Director Joe Lin-Hill, and Chief Curator Cathleen Chaffee. Heri Dono Indonesian, born 1960 Bidadari (Flying Angels), 1996 Fiberglass, fabric, bamboo, acrylic paint, electronic and mechanic devices, cable, and automatic timer Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York By exchange: Gift of Mrs. George A. Forman, Edmund Hayes Fund, James G. Forsyth Fund, Elisabeth H. Gates Fund, Charles W. Goodyear and Mrs. Georgia M. G. Forman Funds, Charles Clifton and James G. Forsyth Funds and Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Garo, 2015 Senses: Hear Heri Dono’s Bidadari (Flying Angels) are reminiscent of the figures found in wayang golek, a puppet theater tradition native to Indonesia. The artist also cites Flash Gordon and other science fiction characters as an influence, and his handmade angels connect folk and popular culture. Dono created this work during a period of intense political repression in Indonesia, and he chose to engage with the imagery of puppetry because of its long history as a platform where otherwise taboo social and political issues may be addressed through allegory and symbolism. Here, Dono offers us a small moment of personal freedom: you may choose to activate the work—causing the bidadari to flap their wings and make noise— by stepping on one of the two floor pedals. Referencing both traditional and contemporary Indonesian culture, Bidadari (Flying Angels) also functions as a symbol of liberty and the power of the human imagination. Olafur Eliasson Icelandic, born 1967 Triple ripple, 2004 Glass, mirror, electric motors, spotlight, and tripod Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Albert H. Tracy, Charles W. Goodyear and Charles Clifton Funds, by exchange, 2007 Senses: See The hypnotic, shifting shadows of Olafur Eliasson’s Triple ripple are produced by rotating glass discs and mirrors that distort light and play with the shadows of people moving through the gallery. Eliasson has described his works as “devices for the experience of reality,” and over the course of his career he has employed a wide range of mediums in his experiments with color and light. However, these physical materials—which have included mirrors, projected light, and fog—are only a means to what he sees as the real work of art: the human experiences they generate. Felix Gonzalez-Torres American, born Cuba, 1957–1996 “Untitled” (Water), 1995 Strands of beads and hanging device The Baltimore Museum of Art Purchase with exchange funds from Bequest of Saidie A. May, BMA 1995.73 Senses: Hear, Touch In order to reach the other galleries in the exhibition, you need to pass carefully through the luminous strands of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (Water). The rustling of the swinging blue, clear, and silver beads can cause us to become uniquely conscious of the other bodies entering and exiting our space. Beaded curtains have traditionally been used to divide public from private or domestic spaces, such as the back room of a store. Like Gonzalez-Torres’s other related beaded curtain works, “Untitled” (Water) can grow or shrink to fit the space where it is exhibited. The artist only requested that these works be installed in threshold spaces, like a doorway, or as boundaries within larger rooms. This work was created during the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States, a time when addressing the private lives of bodies and sexuality had become an urgent political and public necessity. While his works are purposefully left open to interpretation, Gonzalez-Torres, who died from AIDS-related complications, often referred to broader social and political themes using poetically minimal means. With this work, common plastic beads are transformed into a dramatic, interactive cascade that seems, almost magically, to evoke the therapeutic and cleansing properties of water. A second work by Gonzalez-Torres is on view downstairs in the 1962 Building. Felix Gonzalez-Torres American, born Cuba, 1957–1996 Untitled, 1992 Candies individually wrapped in variously colored cellophane, endless supply Private Collection, New York Senses: Taste, Touch You are invited to take and eat one of the colorful candies that make up Felix Gonzalez- Torres’s Untitled. By doing so, you take on some responsibility for altering the work’s shape and overall presence in this space. Over the course of the exhibition, as other visitors take pieces of candy, this glittering carpet will fluctuate in form and size, but will be continually replenished. The work embodies a kind of alchemy: by choosing to present common objects in the uncommon context of the museum, the artist transformed this small gesture into something poetic and even emotional. Gonzalez-Torres’s work often strives to bring private experiences into the public realm, and Untitled speaks to the complex effects of time: growth and dissipation, loss and renewal. Several of Gonzalez-Torres’s candy works are portraits; in one, the total weight of the candy is equivalent to the ideal body weight of the artist’s lover, who eventually wasted away from AIDS-related complications. Another candy piece from 1991 was made as a warning against the excesses of nationalism during the first Gulf War. As a square field, Untitled plays on the geometries of artists associated with the Minimal art of the 1960s, such as Donald Judd or Dan Flavin, whose works are also on view in this gallery. Unlike the work of these Minimalists, however, Gonzalez-Torres’s works are interactive and serial, rather than autonomous and unique. Please note that this work may present a choking hazard, especially to young children. A full list of ingredients is available at the Information Desk. A second work by Gonzalez-Torres is on view upstairs in the special exhibition Out of Sight! Art of the Senses. Robert Irwin American, born 1928 Untitled, 1967 Laquer on aluminum Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York The Panza Collection and George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, by exchange, George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund and Charles Clifton Fund, by exchange, 2012 Senses: See In terms of materials, Robert Irwin’s work is extraordinarily simple: a painted aluminum disc mounted on the wall. But when it is lit according to the artist’s specifications, the work generates a ring of overlapping shadows that feel just as physically present as the disc itself. This carefully calibrated installation immerses us in an experience of light and shadow, challenging our power of perception and the conventional idea that an artwork is bounded by a frame. During the 1960s, Irwin was one of a number of artists, including Dan Flavin and James Turrell (whose work is also featured in this exhibition), who transformed the way we think about light in art. The representation of light and its effects has been a primary subject for artists for centuries: from the flash of early morning dawn in seascapes by J. M. W. Turner, to the glow of moonlight mastered by Albert Pinkham Ryder. For Irwin, Flavin, and Turrell, however, light is an artistic material in its own right, not something to be represented or reproduced using other materials. Wolfgang Laib German, born 1950 Without Beginning and Without End, 2005 Beeswax and wooden understructure Courtesy the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York Senses: Smell If you carefully lean in toward Wolfgang Laib’s Without Beginning and Without End, you might pick up a faint floral scent. This comes from the layer of beeswax covering the work. Laib first began incorporating beeswax—alongside milk, pollen, and other organic materials—in his sculpture about twenty years ago. Since then, he has created numerous chambers lined with beeswax in museums as well as in nature. Often, Laib juxtaposes these fragile elements with sturdy forms reminiscent of monuments. Without Beginning and Without End, for instance, evokes the ziggurats of the ancient Middle East in the way it connects the earth and sky. It is a study in balance between the infinite and the ephemeral, between manmade structures and natural effects. Laib originally trained as a doctor, but he turned to art after deciding that medicine focused too much on the human body and not enough on the human spirit.