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Art in Motion

Arizona Daily Wildcat

As I sat in the Joseph Gross Gallery, watching what looked like a gigantic chain-link fence, I imagined I was inside an enormous medieval cathedral. Al Price's light and shadow construction, which casts a web of moving shadows across 15 feet of wall and ceiling, was titled "Swimming in Front of La Santa Maria" though I imagined I was standing at Notre Dame or the like.

Once I found the title of the piece it was easy enough to shift my interpretation to an underwater exploration rather than a microscopic view of ancient history. The two are close enough on the totem pole, especially when looking at abstract art. They both pursue the mysteries of exploration.

Before an eager viewer can get to this expedition, however, one has to pass through the part of the exhibit that Denis Gillingwater's work strategically inhabits. This includes a trip down a ramp where the walls are mounted with black and white photos of construction sites, billboards in the desert and gray landscapes which are being monitored by cameras mounted on the other side of the ramp. This short journey lands the viewer into a part of the room filled with TV screens which are hooked up to the monitors on the ramp. Additional monitors in this area pan the TV screens as well as the viewers in front of them. Basically, one must place themselves inside of Gillingwater's elaborate design in order to get through it.

The exhibit, "Form/Light/Motion," which showcases both artists, was especially designed for the layout of the Joseph Gross Gallery, a type of art known as "site-specific." As a whole process, it is rather interesting and incorporating for the viewer. Gillingwater's image layering technique uses a conspicuous construction in order to communicate criticism for the construction which distances us from our natural environment (portrayed in the original ramp photos). It was thoughtful of Gillingwater to include us so thoroughly, after all. But however thoughtful his message was, and however curious the viewing process, I must admit I felt bored by its content. I swear, the contractions of the enormous shadow were creating a suction in the room. I couldn't stand behind to think about Gillingwater for too long. I just had to get to that bench in the midst of the heavenwards motion of that shadow. I apologize. Perhaps if the work was not sharing the room with an enormous, ethereal church, things would have been different.