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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

New Exhibit Comes to Life

SMITHSONIAN The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s exhibit, “Days of Endless Time,” features modern movement pieces that play off of themes of solitude, simplicity, meditation and modern transcendentalism.
SMITHSONIAN
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s exhibit, “Days of Endless Time,” features modern movement pieces that play off of themes of solitude, simplicity, meditation and modern transcendentalism.

In a world plagued by a constant onslaught of information and social media activity, it is hard to stand still.

Stillness, in fact, triggers boredom, which recent studies show is a more uncomfortable reality than being in physical pain for many people. Artists counter the ephemerality of today’s digital age and the culture of hyper connectivity in “Days of Endless Time,” currently on show at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., through April 17, as part of the gallery’s yearlong celebration of its 40th anniversary.

The exhibit serves as a benchmark for modern transcendentalism, filled with hauntingly tranquil imagery and pieces selected to emphasize themes of solitude, simplicity and meditation.

Works such as Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s “Horizontal,” a six-channel moving image of a giant Scandinavian spruce tree, invoke the sublimity of the natural world. “Horizontal” also defies the Cartesian notion of a single vantage point. The tree is filmed in vertical sections then realigned horizontally to form an arresting, beautiful wall-length image. The motion of the virtual and tender wind seems to give the tree human breath as it melodically swishes the leaves.

Yet, not all works are as restful — “DeadSee,” a piece in which Israeli artist Sigalit Landau floats naked in an unwinding spiral of watermelons, many of which are gashed or spilling red juice that evokes carnage, comments on the political unrest in the Middle East in a surprising and evocative way.

Although diverse, all the works in the exhibit are underscored by the cyclical visualization of time and the relationship between man and nature.

Guido van der Werve’s performance-based work, “The Day I Didn’t Turn With the World,” is a time-lapse video that captures van der Werve’s tenacity as he stood at the North Pole for 24 hours, spinning slowly against the Earth’s rotation.
Melissa Chiu, the museum’s new director, cites this genre of moving art as foundational to today’s art.

“Video and film are cornerstones of the art of our time. As the Hirshhorn enters its next decade, moving-image art remains an important focus,” Chiu said in a recent interview for the Smithsonian’s Newsdesk.

The only embellishment in the gallery is the art itself, which has both a jarring and calming effect. It is one of those exhibits where you can almost feel the churning of everyone’s brooding minds, as they are forced further into their inner psyche by each piece.

The slow and uncomplicated nature of the pieces cast a chilling aura of introspection throughout the halls of the exhibit, one that is hard to pin down. Even though many of the images are aesthetically pleasing, there is a sense of unease that lingers in between synth soundtracks and bubbling brooks.

Arguably, the most bizarre piece in the collection is Hans-Peter Feldmann’s “Shadowplay,” a backlit display of 10 spinning platforms artistically featuring typically mundane objects. One platform presents a naked and disfigured Barbie doll, half of a toy cow, a crawling baby doll and a toy soldier, with a pink hairbrush as the centerpiece. These moving silhouettes showcase the German art of scherenschnitte, an art form of papercutting. The projection and eerie shadows of childlike objects are intended to remind viewers of the timeless enchantment of bedtime stories.

There is something for everyone to ponder in “Days of Endless Time.” Even Lady Gaga makes a cameo in a video-portrait by Robert Wilson, which debuted at the Louvre last fall. This piece is a fragment of one of Gaga’s most subdued and intriguing artist collaborations to date. The work is an interpretation of “Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere,” painted in 1806 by the French neoclassical artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and depicting a 15-year-old girl dressed in a virginal white mousseline dress who exudes sensuality through her full lips and winding boa.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day. While there to see “Days of Endless Time,” check out the stunning garden and gallery displays, which are free of charge to the public.

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