Still from Jordon Wolfson’s 2009 video Con Leche

Anxiety in contemporary art is the subject of Uncertain Spectator, Nov. 18 to Jan. 29, 2011, at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer. The group exhibition presents works by 10 artists that confront anxiety in art and in the experience of art, said Emily Zimmerman, assistant curator.

“Our historical moment is highly conditioned by anxiety, from post-911 homeland security to the financial crisis, all exacerbated by the news media,” Zimmerman said. “Artists are responding to the time in which we live.”

In particular, Zimmerman said, the show draws attention to the anxiety attendant upon viewers of challenging contemporary works.

“So often, contemporary work asks you to push your boundaries, to venture into an unfamiliar terrain,” Zimmerman said. “There is a moment of anxiety that the viewer has to overcome in the encounter with a work of art, trusting that the experience may be of great value or provoke you to think differently.”

The exhibition is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday from noon until 6 p.m. There will be a free opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 18, at 5:30 p.m. Additional information can be found on the EMPAC website at www.empac.rpi.edu.

The exhibit includes:

Claire Fontaine’s 2006 CHANGE, a spine-chilling display of 12 seemingly ordinary American quarters, each modified to conceal a box-cutting blade — a play on the infamous weapon wielded by the 9/11 hijackers and the security obsession it has fueled.

Jordon Wolfson’s 2009 video Con Leche, a swirl of anxiety-inducing images and narrative touching on the trajectory of capitalism in our country — the patterns of commodity culture, and the after-effects of industrial decline.

The video loops animations of milk-filled soft-drink bottles marching through footage of post-industrial Detroit, overlaid with audio commentary on current debates like the pros and cons of recycling. The commentary is itself disjointed as an unseen director interjects commands to the narrator as she is talking.

Zimmerman said the piece requires careful consideration.

“You have to take your time with it,” Zimmerman said. “You’re initially weighed down in the pain and difficulty of the everyday confusion that it reflects, but there is a point at which the piece transcends that mundane experience.”

Susanna Hertrich’s 2008 Realty Checking Device offers perspective on our anxieties. A graphic displayed on a mirrored box depicts the degree of public outrage a particular danger elicits — such as global warming, a car crash, or a terrorist attack — in relation to the actual risk it poses to the life of an individual.

“It’s reflecting your anxieties back onto you, questioning whether we’re anxious enough about certain things and far too anxious about others that, in reality, are not likely to affect us,” Zimmerman said.

EMPAC will post 13 of artist Anthony Discenza’s signs across campus. The signs mimic official street signs in appearance, but are worded with disquieting phrases like “This Area Now Controlled by Unseen Forces,” “Please Stand By,” and “Coming Up: Greater Horrors.”

“It’s an intervention in your daily life that pulls you out of rote experience and hopefully creates a moment of reflection,” Zimmerman said.

The exhibition also includes documentation regarding a famous event in the history of experimental art which has relevance to the themes of Uncertain Spectator. Ten photographs chronicle Graciela Carnivale’s 1968 action for the Experimental Art Cycle in which Carnivale invited guests to an opening and then locked them in the gallery. An hour after Carnivale locked the doors, the guests convinced a passerby to break the storefront window. As they escaped through the broken glass, they were given a statement about the intention of the work.

Zimmerman said the works in Uncertain Spectator ask individuals to cross that threshold — place themselves in situations riddled with tension, confront deeply charged emotional content, and grapple with feelings of apprehension.

“The show isn’t an easy topic — people don’t want to dwell in anxiety. The show is asking people to sit with anxiety, and to consider the positive aspects of uncertainty,” Zimmerman said.

Contact:

Mary Martialay
Communications Specialist
(518) 276-2146
(518) 951-5650 (mobile) 
martim12@rpi.edu

Jason Steven Murphy
PR & Marketing Manager, EMPAC
(518) 276-4136
murphj8@rpi.edu