This was a very cool installation at the Portland Art Museum that Mariah (my wife) and I both enjoyed. To find this piece, the viewer has to walk through a darken hallway into a very dark room. At the far end of the room is a large, flashing, neon (or probably LED) mouth on the wall. This mouth changes colors and the teeth appear and disappear, and the obvious connection that the viewer makes is to the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. (Especially if you've read the description cards before entering!)
Periodically, a disembodied voice sings out from the darkness in crazed, sing-song tones, and Mariah and I both found ourselves looking towards the flashing mouth when this happened, although neither of us could quite understand why we did that. And then, to further complicate the scene, every few minutes on a wall adjacent to the mouth, a series of very short films would start to play (most about a minute or two long) showing various people climbing up or down from some tree or other. (I didn't take any photos of the films...) In one of the films, a fellow in a fencing mask climbs a tree, which I thought was pretty funny.
Overall, the work was, as Mariah says, a "unique and interesting" experience. We sat in the room for quite a while listening to the singing voice, watching the film clips, and enjoying the flashing neon mouth. Pretty cool installation. A little creepy, a little sad, obviously dealing with negation and invisibility, but a successful piece. Glad we saw it!!!
Descriptions cards:
---Richard F. Yates
Periodically, a disembodied voice sings out from the darkness in crazed, sing-song tones, and Mariah and I both found ourselves looking towards the flashing mouth when this happened, although neither of us could quite understand why we did that. And then, to further complicate the scene, every few minutes on a wall adjacent to the mouth, a series of very short films would start to play (most about a minute or two long) showing various people climbing up or down from some tree or other. (I didn't take any photos of the films...) In one of the films, a fellow in a fencing mask climbs a tree, which I thought was pretty funny.
Overall, the work was, as Mariah says, a "unique and interesting" experience. We sat in the room for quite a while listening to the singing voice, watching the film clips, and enjoying the flashing neon mouth. Pretty cool installation. A little creepy, a little sad, obviously dealing with negation and invisibility, but a successful piece. Glad we saw it!!!
Descriptions cards:
---Richard F. Yates
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