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Experience at the New Museum in New York is a highly interactive show displaying a survey of works of the Brussels born artist Carsten Höller. The show plays on the viewer’s senses and perceptions and places them in an atmosphere that is similar to that of a fairground and a science experiment.
The show is on three floors of the New Museum with a 102-foot sliderunning all the way from the fourth to the second floor. Titled The Alternate Transportation System, the slide introduces a concept for visionary architecture and offers a mind-altering experience as riders are no longer in control of their senses. I watched with amusement as people young and old whizzed past me within the transparent casing of the tube-shaped slides.
Opting for something safer, I rode The Mirrored Carousel. It references traditional carousels with its shape, swing seats and lighting, adding to the carnival-like atmosphere of the show. However the sensory experience of the carousel is atypical, with an abnormally slow pace and reflective surfaces.
In Great Psycho Tank (1999) people are invited to float weightlessly and alone in a sensory deprivation pool. The pool offers a peaceful out-of-body experience, contrasting the funfair atmosphere of the rest of the show.
With Experience Corridor people undertake a series of self-experiments, exemplifying the role they play as participants in Höller’s experimentation. Originally a scientist, the artist’s work still maintains a scientific element to it, exploring, assessing and challenging the human sensory experience. With a fish tank, birdcages and giant mushrooms, there is a lot more fun to be had.
Höller even references the experience of taking drugs. In Pill Clock (2011), white pill capsules drop from the ceiling into a huge pile contained in a transparent box. The pills are conveniently placed next to a water cooler. Double Light Corner (2011) uses flashing lights to give the viewer the impression that space is flipping back and forth. There is also a small glass vial entitled The Love Drug (PEA)(1993/2011), containing phenylethylamine, an alkaloid (commonly found in chocolate), which produces hormones that produce “positive feelings.”
Experience is certainly a crowd pleaser; it was no surprise to see queues for the attractions almost as long as the slide. The exhibition draws people in, inviting them to experience the work through their senses. I left feeling challenged, confused, excited, thrilled and rattled all at the same time. The exhibition had an effect on me. Is that not a central aim of all art?
Carsten Holler: Experience, New Museum, NY, October 26, 2011–January 15, 2012
If interested in this article, I recommend the following exhibition, as well:
Maurizio Cattelan: All, Guggenheim, NY, November 4, 2011–January 22, 2012
*All images from Gothamist.