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Take a Ride at the U.Va. Art Museum
Thu, February 4, '10 |
The January 29th Final Friday art event at the U.Va. Art Museum and the Ruffin Gallery saw a great turnout despite frigid temperatures and a threat of snow. For readers who have not taken advantage of this once-a-month open house style event, I highly recommend it as either a great way to kick off the weekend or a lovely evening on its own.
Final Fridays take place on the last Friday of each month when the museum (and often Ruffin Gallery) extend hours to 7:30pm and cater the party-vibed event with artisanal cheeses and breads, soft drinks, wine, and beer. Oh, and it’s free.
Visiting artist Aaron Henderson’s installment Midway, a video piece that takes a closer look at people riding carnival rides, was a main attraction last Friday. Henderson hails from Indiana, and his work has been shown recently at a number of notable venues such as the Lincoln Center in Chicago and the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival in Seattle, WA. He is currently teaching in the new media program at the McIntire Department of Art.
Midway consists of three video installations in a darkened room in Ruffin Gallery. To enter the space, viewers walk around a large constructed wall to arrive at the first of three pieces, “Pharaoh’s Fury.” This first portion consists of two opposing 9’ x 9’ projections of video. The first few minutes of viewing this piece involve figuring out that you are standing in the middle of a Viking Ship ride that is oscillating back and forth so that the peaks of motion occur on the opposite screens. Soon the feeling of repeated swinging begins to translate to the viewer as nausea, and the bright colors and squealing children begin to lose their initial charm. One of the central elements of “Midway” presents itself: the eeriness under the surface of an otherwise cheerful and positive day at the carnival.
From here the next piece, “Feuerball,” a four channel video sculpture, finds the viewer standing in the middle of four screens and watch as fair-goers ride a swinging contraption. They are shown gliding from screen to screen, but again a darker mood pervades the sunny carnival atmosphere shown on the screens. Children and riders disappear from their seats and are swapped out with other riders at random intervals, often before the viewer can get a good look into their faces. The screams of exhilaration and grinding noise of the rides detach from their true sources and insinuate terror.
The third and final part of Midway is “Gravitron.” This two channel high definition video display depicts riders on the classic carnival ride that spins riders around and pins them to the wall from the gravity of the motion. The kids (and parents) on this ride slide from one screen to the next, and a disembodied foot or hand often appears on the next screen. The riders seem sterile, and their flat backed position brings to mind victims tied up on a conveyor belt riding to their doom.
Henderson’s Midway is certainly a successful exercise in transition from the bright and cheerful to an underlying darkness and fright. When asked if there is some statement he would like to give a viewer before or after they enter the installation, the artist replied, “I see the people on these rides as partners to me in my work. They are choreographers, and the piece focuses on their facial expressions and emotions.” Henderson is a very humble and approachable artist, and if you have a chance, seek him out for a chat after you do a walkthrough of his thoroughly engaging and delightfully eerie installation at the Ruffin Gallery.
Midway is showing until Feb. 19 in Ruffin Gallery. Henderson will be speaking on Feb. 17 at 5:30 p.m. in Campbell Hall, room 160.