Extreme Angles in the New Year

Graham Norton's New Year's Eve Party Set

11 Minutes into this video, the party gets started!

I've been thinking about my day at the Hammer Museum a lot lately.  Two weeks ago, I took advantage of the free admission anniversary promotion and headed down on a rainy day Sunday to see the museum.  I was excited as it was my first visit ever.  It was a great trip and I spent over two hours looking at the permanent collection and exhibits.

Seems as if durning the holiday season, there is a trend in museum curation of truly interactive work that forces the audience to stop treating a museum like a church or sacred space and have fun and play in the museum.  Up until January 23, the Hammer has this something in Julian Hoeber's work, titled Demon Hill.  It's a work that deals with a room on extreme angles and extreme lighting.  There  was a sign posted in front of the work that upon entering, some people may experience disorientation and I was a naysayer and shook my head, thinking it funny there should be a warning sign stating that one could experience the list of maladies, but once in the work, I did feel light headed and tried to force myself into the work and act like all was well.  That  feeling was a bit exciting as it forced other senses into the experience of the sculpture/mixed media work.

The memory of the work has stayed with me for the last 2 weeks and when watching Graham Norton's New Year's Eve program, I saw how this experience can be applied to entertainment.  When sharing a description of this work, my mom reminded me of the house at Six Flags Over Texas- a tilt house-Casa Magnetica that was in the park from 1962 to 1997 and then a resurrection in 2004-07.  The pictures and spiel for the simple attraction are at this link, along with an explanation of the phenomenon here.

All this makes me want to make work that gets people recalling it weeks after.  This also makes me want to see how living extremes this year could influence the work I do make.  Should be an interesting kick start to all my work- be it installation or photography. _______________________ _________________________________