Multi–Media is the Message
by Ross Rice

Dia: Beacon, Riggio Galleries Fifth Anniversary

Interconnectedness and disconnect. Integration and disintegration. Artists who explore these dichotomies can often require working in more than one medium to get anywhere. This month, we are fortunate to have two large–scale exhibits nearby, in Beacon and Hudson, that embrace the potential of multi–media combinations to fully render the artist’s vision and intention.

In both installations, access to new media technology plays an important, liberating role, but the challenge is still (as it always has been) to make the medium effective at transmitting, well… something worth receiving. Featured artist (of Hudson’s Plugged In) Fernando Orellana presents it well: “Every second, like an ever–expanding information ocean, humans transmit trillions upon trillions of messages, via their bodies, cellular phones, computers, fax machines, radios, televisions, etc., to other humans. For the most part, these transmissions communicate little, becoming just more energy lost into entropy.”

“It is the quality and impact of an interpreted transmission that becomes essential for it to stay afloat on humanity’s invisible information universe. Within these few buoyant transmissions we recognize something to be art.”
A pianist strides across the stage to the waiting piano. The audience claps, pianist bows, audience hushes, pianist sits at piano, as if preparing to perform. Audience really hushes in anticipation. Pianist doesn’t move. Audience murmurs. Pianist still doesn’t move. Audience giggles nervously, some laugh outright. Nothing from pianist. This goes on for four minutes and thirty–three seconds, then pianist stands up, bows, and exits the stage. Audience somewhat bemused, even flummoxed.

This, in a nutshell, is American avant–garde composer John Cage’s 4’33”, his most notorious and puckish “composition.” There are actual recordings of this performance, which by the way is much more entertaining and revealing than you might think. Cage reveals that artistic anticipation and response can actually exist in the ABSENCE of performance, that the audience themselves could embody the work. This sort of sly humor made Cage something of a self–caricature in academic music circles, but no one could deny that he was onto something beyond basic music composition, and his influence—not unlike punk’s influence on pop music—was a much–needed response to the rigid constructs of serialism.

Yeah, but could you dance to it?

Well, if anyone could, it would be Merce Cunningham. One of the world’s foremost modern dancers and choreographers, Cunningham made his mark as a soloist with Martha Graham Dance Company before forming his own company in 1953, achieving international acclaim as an innovator. A champion of “non–representational” dance, Cunningham has stayed on the cutting edge as one of the developmental team behind DanceForms, the latest in computer software for choreography, which he himself utilizes even now. Together with Cage, his artistic collaborator and life partner since the 1940s (until Cage’s passing in 1992), they toyed with the basic concepts of inspiration, structure, and relation between music, movement, and time.

It isn’t easy to rise to the challenge of creating something absolutely new, but Cage and Cunningham gave it their best. In the 1950s they experimented with the possibilities of chance, employing the I Ching to supply compositional information. They would also work independently, putting the music and dance together without any conscious relation between the two. The results, when it actually worked, did allow for new artistic statements that could never have been made any other way. Traditional process had been subverted—some thought it was a dereliction of responsibility, leaving so much to chance—but to Cage and Cunningham, it was about navigating uncharted waters, trying to find something to discover.

One artist who felt the influence is Tacita Dean. British–born and presently based in Berlin, Dean trained as a painter before moving into other media including photography, drawing, and sound, but she is best known for her work with 16mm films, often with static camera positions and long takes. Recent exhibitions have been held in Oslo, Norway and Munchenstein/Basel Switzerland, and she was the recipient of the 2007 Hugo Boss Prize Exhibition at the Guggenhein in New York City. Like Cage and Cunningham, she too employs chance and circumstance in her work, but where they were going to great lengths to subtract the notion of meaning and subtext from their art, Dean seems to be seeking the connections that occur in even the most disconnected scenarios.

In her upcoming installation for the fifth anniversary of Dia: Beacon, Riggio Galleries, Dean presents Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS (in three movements) to John Cage’s composition 4’33” with Trevor Carlson, New York City, 28 April 2007, a projection installation utilizing footage from six different films shot last year at Cunningham’s Manhattan studio. In each film, shot from different angles, the camera stays focused on Cunningham, who assumes a variety of attitudes while sitting on a chair. Each screen renders the dancer’s image at life–size. Cunningham himself will be present with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for the exhibition opening (May 18) as part of their two–year series entitled Beacon Events, where they will perform original choreography and scores in response to specific installations at the museum.

Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries is an ideal venue for such a performance. Occupying a former Nabisco box–printing facility, and renovated by artist Robert Irwin and architect OpenOffice, Dia:Beacon hosts an amazing 240,000 square feet of naturally–lit gallery space, allowing for more comprehensive and large–scale installations of classic contemporary works (please see www.diaart.org for more about Dia’s history and stunning collection). Also in conjunction with the anniversary will be two installations of works by Dusseldorf–based artist Imi Knoebel: 24 Colors—for Blinky (1977), a large–scale production of 24 wooden panels which hasn’t been viewed since being shown in Cologne that year, and Room 19 (1968), an amorphous seventy–seven part work that will re–installed (and thus re–interpreted) by American artist Helen Mirra.

Dia:Beacon, Riggio Galleries celebrates its fifth anniversary with the opening of the Dean/Cunningham exhibit on May 17 (on view until September 2008), and the performance of Beacon Events by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on May 18 at 2 and 4:30 PM. Visit www.diaart.org for more info and directions to the gallery, or call 845.440.0100. Summer hours are Fr-Mo, 11 AM- 6 PM.
Plugged In; Exhibition of new media works in Hudson

A bit further upstate, up a few train stops, the entire town of Hudson is being utilized as one big gallery for curator Melissa Stafford’s ambitious multi–media extravaganza, Plugged In. Drawing from artists all over the Hudson Valley and New York City, Stafford has found an impressive mix of tech–savvy visionaries, some who are first–time collaborators, who seem to be having fun with electricity. “I believe the marriage of technology and new medias with the historically rich spaces in and along Warren Street will provide a challenging environment in which people can have adventures,” says Stafford. “Visitors can make their own journeys and their own decisions. Artists will not just be providing a particular piece to be heard, seen, and enjoyed in one way, but supply a collage of materials for people to play with, explore, and create something for themselves.”

A playful sense of humor seems an undercurrent of this exhibition. Kathe Izzo (Hudson, N.Y.) will present “interactive jewelry,” incorporating a flash drive, which when inserted into a laptop provides a private video performance. Giorgio Handman, Jasdeep Gosal, and Jonathan Osofky (Hudson) have combined their talents on a video projection (“a magic carpet ride around Hudson”) that will be screened during the night hours on a billboard overlooking 330 Warren Street. Bart Woodstrup (Troy) and Chip Fasciana (Albany) are using alleyway space, where vintage electronics appear to be either hovering, or connecting the buildings, while Mark Gregory (Albany) and Jesse Matulis (Cohoes, NY) transform an empty firehouse garage on Warren Street into a mechanical world of moving parts and imagery.

Jillian McDonald’s piece “The Sparkling” has an interactive video hooked up to a motion sensor, complete with shaking chandelier and gothic horror movie references. Christine Sciulli (NYC) bases her open air installation on a character in a famous sea chanty, using print and video. Bryan Zanisnik (NYC), whose work generally explores gender issues, will be utilizing the wall at Tom Noonan Antiques for his video installation incorporating himself as a mermaid. Additional artists include, Fernando Orellana (Troy), Michael Oatman (Troy, NY), and Ingrid Ludt (Albany).

The two–week long installation starts with a kick–off party (May 17) at the PARC foundation buildings at 330 and 336 Warren Street in Hudson. Starting with Brooklyn–based trio Lukomski/Majer/Lail, who layer guitars, loops, samples, and unidentifiable sounds into sonic explorations and mini–symphonies, the evening proceeds with New York City DJs ESE and Mikey Palms, street culture heroes (and radio pirates) of indie hip–hop, accompanied by live artist Mike Long, sketching on a 6’ X 10’ blank slate. Headliners Eclectic Method hail from the UK, flooding the four walls with visuals and sounds from a full DJ/VJ crew. With a fan base including Fatboy Slim, Gilles Peterson, and Brian Eno, Eclectic Method may be considered “punk innovators for the 21st century.”

Plugged In will be running throughout the town of Hudson from May 17 through May 31. The opening night party featuring Lukomsky/Majer/Lail, DJ ESE + Mikey Palms,and Eclectic Method will be at the PARC foundation buildings at 330 and 336 Warren Street, Hudson from 6 to 10 PM. For more info, visit www.hudsonpluggedin.com.