Dreamlands at the Whitney
Victoria Blakemore
Integrative Studio: Avatar
November 1, 2016
Dreamlands at the Whitney was a truly incredible exhibit at the Whitney Museum. This was unlike any exhibit in a museum that I had ever seen before. The exhibition is defined as “immersive cinema art” and it actually does “immerse” you in the art of cinematic art. The first thing I really took note of was the fact that the show was not only captivating to one but, almost all of my senses. The average Museum show usually only engages one of your senses, sight, but almost immediately in this show you are exposed and engaged with sight and sound.
Dreamlands had a futuristic feel too it. Even when you were watching the section featuring projections of videos that seemed to be filmed around the 80’s the entire piece looked very futuristic and sci-fi like. Neon lights, geometric shapes and dark rooms also added to this collective feel. Secondly, the use of multiple projections to create one piece gives the exhibition more of a unique futuristic feel. It was like a digital, cinematic, collage of sorts.
There were many artists that I particularly liked from this exhibition specifically, Edwin S. Porter who did Coney Island at Night, Hito Styerel who created Factory of the Sun, and Ian Cheng who made Baby. Although these tree works were very different there was a few things that I immediately was drawn to in each. Coney Island at Night was a very visually intriguing piece for me, the way the lights twinkled in black and white made me feel very nostalgic and appealed to the minimalistic aesthetic that I like very much, it also prompted thoughts of the twinkling lights you see at Christmas time which added to the nostalgia. Hito Styerel’s Factory of the Sun was very different that Edwin S Porters work. Hito Styerels work included a visual collage of many different videos and music, it was whimsical, entertaining and futuristic. It featured the colors gold and blue primarily to add the futuristic yet old feeling by adding music from the 80’s in the background. Finally, Ian Cheng’s piece, Baby, really stood out to me. It was extremely different from the other pieces I appreciated, it was simple and reminded me of art deco architecture even though it had nothing to do with architecture. The colors, simplicity, and fluid motion really lended itself to the piece by creating a relaxing and abstract composition on a blank wall.
