I was rather uneased, nay, discombobulated after spending an hour or so wit the Whitney’s Dreamlands. It’s rather hard to fault their choices of curatorship. You can/could: but would that be more personal preference? It could equally be, falsely opined, that the curatorship is ‘something for everyone’. Well, it is. But not in any terms derogatorily, nor diminishing. As if you hadn’t already guessed, I hate writing ‘proper’ reviews of anything any more. Those are everywhere. Everywhere else. And many everywhere good. And many greater than I will ever, nay, would/could write But writing something about this show seems, well: purging?
Dreamlands begins with the Oskar Schlemmer video etc. etc., not new to me, but ever so infinitely fascinating. You get the familiar (again to me but perhaps revelatory to others) Bruce Connor Crossroads. A transfixing Anthony McCall ‘light’ or rather ‘dark’ installation Line Descending a Cone (1973!).
(I walked through Times Square to get to my subway a few nights ago…thought of this piece. Of Ken Jacobs re-installing of his mid-70s Black Space (off-Whitney at Microscope).
Throughout this show I seemed somehow wanting an/to escape. But where?!! Thus was the discombobulation. Because silence and stillness is never free of ‘noise or movement’. It’s like germs and immunity: if you have no exposure to something then it will get you, in the end. Even ever thus. Dare I cite Blade Runner (Syd Mead designs) or…To be crass: the yin is not the yang without the yin. Terence Broad who re-mixes his own contributions to that film.
There is an extraordinary work (me show-off: saw in Austria’s Venice Biennale Pavilion way back when.) Mathias Poledna’s Imitation of Life (2013) Read the story: it’s created by hundreds of real ex-Disney ‘cell’ animators and a real soundtrack orchestra. One can get really 'blaze' about this sort of work! Spend a day at the Dreamlands Whitney. And maybe even win a free 'dream'. Or rather 'adjustment'. Of your very own.:)
There’s Floridian Andrea Crespo’ s video. Actress Tilda Swinton ‘playing’ DiNA in Lynn Hershman Leeson’s voice interactive female. She’s not that good on ‘taking the hint’. So for followers of he film Her you might get dis-avowed.
I stopped at Jenny Perlin. I stayed at Ben Coonley’s Trading Futures more for the work than the bean bags in the cardboard 'office clipped' geo-dome. No wonder beans went out of fashion for the 'green giants';) !. They are blissful in uno re-pose. Mind you: so are many so-called designer chairs. !
There’s a helluva lot in this show. You could be mealy mouthed and just say well it’s a crowd-pleasing mish-mash. But it most certainly packs a punch. Did I mention Ian Cheng’s Baby feat. Ikaria, : Bots (talking) that were designed for customer service etc that are now talking to each other and, well, pissing well off each other. The audio is more interesting than the video projection (Pace just had have something akin…)
Did I write a review:
of ‘bot’ help me!
...Are men still, catch a wheel within a wheel,
See more in a truth than the truth's simple self,
Confuse themselves. You see lads walk the street
Sixty the minute; what's to note in that?
You see one lad o'erstride a chimney-stack;
Him you must watch—he's sure to fall, yet stands!
Our interest's on the dangerous edge of things.
The honest thief, the tender murderer,
The superstitious atheist, demireps
That loves and saves her soul in new French books—
We watch while these in equilibrium keep
The giddy line midway: one step aside,
They're classed and done with. I, then, keep the line
Before your sages,—just the men to shrink
From the gross weights, coarse scales and labels broad
You offer their refinement...
Robert Browning
Intelligent 'bots' : wind beneath 'our' wings....
