Provenzo's installation makes new mental connections.
Yesterday the other “fishbowl” at 107 West Beverley Street in downtown Staunton may have looked like an offbeat art project itself, one of those quirky performance art gigs where pedestrian movements are carried out in a tight space.
In reality, it was author/artist Gene Provenzo and myself installing, through sweat and laughter, THINK, the video advocacy piece Gene made in collaboration with Transition Staunton August for the Minds Wide Open Filling the Glass Half Full: A Storefront Art Initiative project in downtown Staunton.
Provenzo’s piece, a gestalt-driven rapid imagery glance at the modern cultural elements pertinent to our Transition group, sits inside a black box “peep show” style image bank we constructed using black paper, lifts, black foam core, tape and crossed fingers.
Covering energy use and consumption, food production and food waste, cognition, education, sprawl, oil and coal disasters, and the life of Staunton, THINK loops again and again, ending with a question about how we will determine the future of this town amidst larger questions of society and economy.
The short film also uses language, albeit sparingly, in a recapitulating manner, urging the viewer to think on the issues rather than turn away. But one can easily turn away from these questions, not only in ordinary life, but also in relating to the installation.
Disappearing into a black box, the almost secret installation requires the viewer to step into a willing process of engagement. Simply to encounter the piece, one has to be an already aware walker, moving eyes wide open through the Staunton streetscape. Should the viewer happen to see the video hiding in plain sight, he or she must stop, fixing his or her view directly into the screen in its shadowbox home.
Just like the issues of our times that are as plain as the nose on our faces, yet disappearing into the circuitry of our daily lives, buried by the foreground of myriad concerns commandeering our attention, this installation requires conscious encounter to rouse awareness and concern. When will we stop the frantic pace long enough to take a good long look into the deeper issues of our times, issues that will assert themselves inescapably if we do not take them on first?
THINK on it. We invite you to see the Provenzo-TSA collaborative installation until July 27, 2010.
