Empty space inspires art in Pfaff’s…all of the above
Churning with the outpourings of a wild imagination, Rice Gallery’s newest installation from renowned artist Judy Pfaff, whose work was shown at New York’s Whitney Museum of American art, greets visitors with an assault of visual stimulation. So many things are going on in the room that the eye never lacks for something to observe.
As such, describing this piece, entitled …..all of the above, is very difficult. Neon-colored strings stretch across the room, lit plastic circles lie on the floor and on the walls. White steel coils spin in so many directions and places that viewers becomes dizzy following them. Vines coated with a mud-looking substance hang from the ceiling, and ultraviolet lights hang on the walls — the list goes on.
Needless to say, it is crazy in the Rice Gallery right now.
An initial gut reaction of shock makes viewers incredulous to the rhyme and reason to such a busy artwork. However, MacArthur Fellowship recipient Pfaff knew how to construct the piece and, contrary to possible thoughts otherwise, put her artistic and logical mind to work in the month she spent assembling everything.
But the piece is not about Pfaff’s thoughts while creating her art, it is about the viewer’s interpretation of her work. Pfaff even encouraged spectators to disregard her intentions for the piece. As she said while speaking on opening night, “There are a lot of little stories here that amuse me, but you don’t need to know them.”
This kind of abstract art immerses the viewer in its own world, but its similarities to personal experiences can and should be explored. Think of this installation as a room full of keys to intimate memories or random associations. The scattered umbrella frames could remind someone of being caught in the rain or of losing an umbrella to the wind. Perhaps the white steel coils are reminders of a crazy roller coaster ride. Upon entering the gallery, such analogies can keep viewers from feeling like they stumbled upon a discombobulated scene. Sure, the vines are from Pfaff’s yard in New York, but their arrangement fosters active contemplation.
The physical and mental processes Pfaff put into her piece are interesting. She put many referents to weather in the room, such as the tornado-like stacks of plaster discs and supports that look like a lightning show. Also present are contrasting suggestions of movement. The aforementioned coils of dizzying steel and taut strings move quickly while the lugubrious hanging vines with mud move slowly. Pfaff explores other contrasts — hard and soft, black and white — and mixes them.
As in Pfaff’s past works, the installation came after she saw the space it was going to go in. Most artworks are not made with a specific room in mind, but Pfaff likes to know where her work is going. In this case, she liked the Rice Gallery room but had to grow into it. She still does not like the ceiling, but loves the floor. The art came from those opinions of the room, opinions of the Rice campus and other impressions of the Houston area in general. This installation is an artistic reaction to everything around it. For Pfaff, a Sweetwater, Texas native, this meant a lot of weather references.
Pfaff spent about a month constructing …..all of the above and told the exhibit’s opening night crowd about her creative process.
“I start badly, slowly,” she said. “I stall a lot. I circle, making a decision. I’m like a bad student who waits until the last minute.”
Does all this make Pfaff’s work beautiful or worth seeing? As with all things the Rice Gallery offers, the free admission and immediate proximity makes this a must-see, but judgments are individual. This installation does seem to grow on you as you spend more time with it, and because no visual angle is boring, …..all of the above is infinitely interesting.
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