by donald dusinberre imartsyfartsy@gmail.com
Sometimes while looking at art, I can actually feel my mind close up. My mood turns skeptical and sour, and my ability to relate to what I’m seeing drains away. I can tell when it’s happening, and it’s usually after I’ve been looking for a while. Frankly, everyone reaches his or her limit at some point, but when it happens at the very beginning of my experience, I know I’ve got to make a conscious effort to re-engage my mind. It doesn’t necessarily help me like what I see, but it at least helps me begin to understand it.
Such was my predicament while visiting MOCA Jacksonville this past week. Truly one of my favorite museums, MOCA has a number of brand new exhibitions, one of which is Impermanence: Recent Works by Andrés Michelena. There are five of his works on display: two video installations, one painting, one installation, and one mixed media sculpture. At first glance, the collection seemed to be overusing a loaded image, which is always a lazy tactic. You see, artists sometimes focus too closely on one idea, image or style and beat it to death, and I was afraid I had stumbled upon another one. When artists repeat themselves, it often means they’re trying to put the job of creating meaning solely on the viewer. The giant iron door of my open mind began to close.
So I took a deep breath and pried the doors open again. I could see translucent Buddha heads all over the place. One of the videos, the large-scale installation, and the mixed media sculpture all included the same Buddha heads. The painting was large and mostly black, with a single candle and smoke trailing faintly from it. The other video featured a meditating figure. I put my mind to the art in front of me, and I was pleasantly surprised at how my own imagination took control.
Just outside the exhibition space, there was a pamphlet explaining Michelena’s ideas, but I missed it and entered the room ignorant of the fine details. Despite the lack of background information, I still found myself intrigued by a few of the works.
My favorite was Awa, the installation piece featuring 108 translucent Buddha heads suspended in midair. The word ‘awa’ means ‘bubble,’ which is an appropriate description of the sight. The heads are made of glycerin soap and are intended to gradually melt away, which I didn’t realize at the time. As I took a closer look, I noticed there were words embedded in the heads. Despite the signs posted warning against touching the heads, I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t read the messages, but it turns out that this installation is the truest example of impermanence. When the heads dissolve, they will leave only the written messages behind.
Awa seems more like a performance piece than an installation, and I feel like I’ll miss some important stages in its existence. In the life of the piece, isn’t there a relative climax when the first message becomes readable? What about when the last head dissolves and all the messages are readable? Are the messages important? Do they need to be read to complete the performance? No matter what, my innumerable questions caused me to feel anxious, which is not a common Zen sentiment.
Instead of working in a single medium and exploring different ideas with it, Michelena has chosen a simple theme and applied different media to it. The result is highly developed, revealing angles of Michelena’s idea that might have otherwise gone undiscovered.
Whether you have all the facts or not, Michelena’s idea lends quite a bit of leeway, much like Buddhism itself. When you visit the exhibition, keep your mind and senses open. In art, your thoughts are seldom wrong, so take what you will from what you see and let the heads get into your head.
See the Impermanence exhibit at MOCA Jacksonville until August 26th and visit mocajacksonville.org for museum hours and other current exhibitions.
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