Rarely do the words “annoying” and “awesome” so aptly describe the same experience, but such is the case for the “Paradise Institute” — the virtual surreality show now on view at the Corcoran.
It’s worth every minute, all 13 of them.
Through an amazing sleight of sight and audio, the multimedia installation jettisons Sensurround into the 21st century, transporting viewers to the edge of reality and imagination. Created by artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, the experience of this Venice Biennale award-winner is akin to settling into a multisensory moshpit.
Having earned accolades for site-specific “artwalks” guided by Cardiff via headphones, the Canadian couple’s 2001 fanta-fabrication sets a high-water markfor video installations.
The small, simple rectangular wood structure gives no clue of life inside. Yet upon entering either of two doors, you feel convinced you’ve entered a Twilight Zone-like movie palace. Taking a seat in the rear balcony, you face a huge sea of velveteen seats and side-balconies converging upon a huge screen in the distance. It can’t be real, yet how could mere mortals create an illusion of perfect perspective, the soft glow of dimmed theater lights glinting off the ornate architectural details, exact down to the dust drifting in the projector’s beam?
Donning headphones, you’re anchored smack-dab in the middle of whisperers, heavy breathers, scene-spoilers, popcorn-munchers, cell phone harborers, and latecomers stumbling among the seated. Ewwww, the humanity … unaware or without care of invading the gentle viewer’s personal space.
Meanwhile, a film noir fills the screen, drawing the viewer in — quite literally. The action seems to overflow into your reality, the oddball characters turning the drama into a web.
The deception is at turns sublimely delightful and supremely obnoxious. The artistry transcends sense-tweaking chicanery. By the way, was that an air current or someone’s breath tingling the back of our ears?
“Paradise Institute” is part of the Corcoran’s museum-wide exhibit, “redefined: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection.” The 190 objects include other trickster installations, such as two video shorts from Clare Rojas and Andrew Jeffrey Wright. In “The Manipulators” and “Ich Bin Ein Manipulator,” they deface — no, reface and reimagine — the pages of consumerism-centric fashion magazines using markers and typing correction fluid. Put on the headphones and take this turbo-grafitto joyride.
Vernon Fisher’s 1983 tri-part mixed-media tells of a wife attempting to trace her spouse’s secret trips by matching the car radio’s adjustable punch-buttons withstations in far-off locales. Moving from timeless to topical, Patricia Piccinini lures unsuspecting viewers with a life-like little girl playing with mutant blobs — welcome to “Still Life with Stem Cells.”
The cineplex can wait. Immerse yourself in “Paradise” and “redefined” before they disappear from view early January. You’ll be sufficiently fired up to check out the gallery’s new “Joan of Arc,” which opens Saturday, before you leave.
Corcoran shows
“Paradise Institute” and “redefined” run until early January; “Joan of Arc” runs Saturday through Jan. 21.
Venue: Corcoran Gallery of Art, New York Avenue and 17th Street NW, Washington
More info: 202-639-1700 or www.corcoran.org
