Zoma's Chelsea Galleries

The first work we will discuss about, concerning our trip to the Chelsea show galleries, is from the Yorgo Alexopoulos' galery "Act of Nature" on 505 w24 st. The show we saw was a typical example of modern artworks and the use of new instruments of audiovisual. The two pictures are actually two screens showing two video animations. 

The two screens were squares and with size 1.5ft x1.5ft. They were hung at about the height of the eyes and disposed vertically accross the angles. The background was white. 

The frame was black and about 5 inches wide in which we can see holes serving as speakers. Some of the major features that were different from what we have seen in museums before were the animation of the pictures and also the presence of sound. The sound was a kind of sound and vibration of fans. The two screens were close to each other and this was purposely done by the artist because they were both conveying a comparative message. They were both presenting moving water waves in the ocean. The views that were shown were the horizons, the limits where the ocean and the sky seem to touch. But the artist uses two complementary colors to distinguish the messages of both scenes. The color blue that is a cool color was used in one scene to represent to night, and we could see the moon very far in the middle of the scene, reflecting its light on the middle of the ocean. In the other screen, the complementary color orange that is a war color was used to represent the day, and we could also see a bright sun . 
In the same showroom, there was another third screen which was in the purpose to unify the two previous scenes. It shows the Earth in a permanent rotation with a bright area representing the day and the other space representing the night. The animations on the screens accompanied by the sound were the major features of this show characterizing the use of multimedia.

Video

The second show we will discuss is from the gallery Janet Cardiff and Georges on 531 w 24 st. It has the special feature to be the weirdest work of art we never saw. The room was dark. All the scenes happen in a kind of car, like a van, and inside there were divers objects and divers scenarios happening. 

It was like a zombie movie. It was characterized by a great disorder. Most of the characters in the scenes were marionettes. The strangest thing was a human body (woman) in a room in the car, with a lot of marionettes around her. 

We were not sure if it was a real human body because she did not breath, she did not move even a bit. However, we looked at the body closer and we could see the human flesh. But how could she not do any movement? Was she able to fake this? We also thought about a dead body they had put there. There was blue light around her to symbolize the calm as the blue is a cool color. 

We could also see a cut human head, probably modeled. There was a man (marionette) sitting,  writing and sometimes stopped writing suddenly. 





As another major figure,  there was  a performance where a woman  (marionette) danced at the sound of piano played by a man (pianist). Here, there was a contrast between the blue light and the turbulence of the spectacle. Chairs were disposed in front the performance where the visitors can sit and watch the it. 

There was also a ship moving on turbulent waves on the ocean. The sound in the room was strong, chaotic, mixed but amplified for scene that was emphasized at the moment,  either the music of the pianist,  the sound of the water waves moving the ship, the writing of the man, etc. 
The positive space was the car, with red and yellow light outside,  characterizing the turbulence of the show. The negative space was the room, sometimes very dark,  sometimes bright.  Lights were projected locally to the different scenes. The whole show was scary but emotional and interesting. The visitor could easily spend hours without paying attention to the time.