New installations fuse art and adventure at the New Museum in NYC. The “Experience” exhibit, running through January 15, offers visitors a chance to interact with art in a way that challenges their perceptions of space and self.
The exhibit is a collection of works by German scientist turned artist, Carsten Holler, that alter ordinary amusement park rides into experiences where the audience is subject, transforming long accepted perceptions of the space around us and how we fit into it.
There’s a 102 foot slide, a signature Holler installation, that winds from the fourth to the second floor, acting as a transportation chute through the gallery and providing an alternative way for taking in the exhibits. Waivers, helmets and elbow pads are required.
To The Washington Post, Holler describes a slide as “a non-surprising environment, completely predictable, yet when you put yourself in it, you have to let go, losing control. You have no means of mastering the situation.
About the New Museum installation he goes on to say, “I’m proposing to look at the world, at what other experiences you can have, how you can experience your whole outside environment outside your body.”
On the slowly turning Mirror Carousel, riders are surrounded by mirrors and lights, adding an unusual and immersive element to the traditional merry-go-round. Riders are the focal point on this super slow speed carousel forcing a new view of self in relation to the outside world.
Other experiential exhibits include the Double Light Corner, where flashing lights give the feeling of moving space, the Experience Corridor where visitors are welcome to try various experiments, and the Psycho Tank, a sensory deprivation pool in which you float weightless in an “outer body experience” sans clothes.
Holler turned to art in 1993 bringing science to his disorienting art-experiments and inviting visitors to explore the traditional in new ways.
For more information, visit the New Museum website.
Flickr: Cea
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