19th
Astral Weeks at Gallery Diet
Tonight, Thursday July 19th, 2012 from 6 to 9PM, Gallery Diet will inaugurate Art Blog Art Blog’s second part group exhibition by artists Deschenes, Brock Enright, Keltie Ferris, Jackie Gendel, Brion Gysin, Heist/Breyer P-Orridge, Corinne Jones, Jon Kessler, Nicholas Lobo, Rory Parks, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Chad Scoville and Patrick Walsh.
Curated by artist Van Hanos, the show stems from ideas and questions motivated by a single artwork by artist Brion Gysin.
The Dream Machine is an anomaly within the history of art, the only known artwork that is fully activated as the viewer closes their eyes. Taken as such, it suggests an evaluation of how artwork is viewed; its function, its value, and the language we use to engage with it.
Bringing together a wide range of practices, each artist investigates both the limits of set material conditions and ways of seeing by exploring physical mechanics, preconceptions of form and abstraction, and the relationship between the object and how it is perceived.
There are two ways to view the Dream Machine:
With eyes closed, the experience will be unique to each viewer and the experience cannot be visually documented or reproduced.
It expands the gap between seeing and deciphering what is seen. The Machine produces a flickering light frequency akin to alpha waves stimulating the brain’s occipital lobe, causing a waking dream, psychedelic experience with the mind’s eye view. The participant is called to a reinvigorated conversation of what, and how, one sees.
The second way to view it is with eyes open as the viewer is not engaged in the occipital lobe state which allows for a shared experience and for critical observation of the work.
Here, the flicker effect producing the mind’s eye view no longer holds sway. At a distance, the sculpture becomes a rotating projector transforming the room with perpetual movement of shapes of light; the object itself is a center-piece, evocative of a silent bonfire.
Like witnessing a performance, silent film, or sculpture, a familiarity is maintained between the viewer and work.
This introduction of a new way of viewing, as simple as it may be, presents a dramatic shift in what may be the task set ahead of the artist.
(Source: examiner.com)
