Quality and varied series of exhibitions currently on display a SF MoMA. All involving different
takes on the perception/experience of the viewers relation to physicality vs. intangibility -
explored in space, architecture, light and texture. From the abstraction and immersive glow
of light from the Olafur Eliasson, to the laser-like perception altering qualities of the McCall/
Knoebel, to the physicality of the architectural collisions between host-space and installation
of the Schramm. Not since the Gerhard Richter "Forty Years of Painting" exhibit of 2003
have I had such a complete, richly stimulating, thoroughly inspired day at the museum.
I have many and much in the way of words to say concerning these exhibitions, and the
memorable experience had seeing/engaging with them last week - but I'm going to leave
all the wordage this time to SF MoMA:
Link to SF MoMA "Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson" site
"Widely heralded as one of the most important artists of his generation, Olafur Eliasson nimbly
merges art, science, and natural phenomena to create extraordinary multisensory experiences.
Challenging the passive nature of traditional art-viewing, he engages the observer as an active
participant, using tangible elements such as temperature, moisture, aroma, and light to generate
physical sensations. The works assembled for this presentation — the first U.S. survey of this
Icelandic artist's oeuvre — date from 1993 to the present and reflect all facets of his creative
practice. Encompassing sculpture, photography, and large-scale immersive installations —
including a newly commissioned kaleidoscopic tunnel that envelops the Museum's steel
truss bridge — these projects are intentionally simple in construction but thrilling to behold,
sparking profound, visceral reactions designed to heighten one's experience of the everyday."
Link to SF MoMA "New Work: Felix Schramm" site
"German artist Felix Schramm creates the illusion of architecture gone awry. Made from drywall,
paint, steel frames, and wood, his site-specific installations resemble the aftermath of disaster
inside the gallery, where the delineations between the work and the institution's architecture are
difficult to discern. His twisted, splintered fragments of structural forms — walls, ceilings, floors
— burst from the building's framework at dramatic angles, producing large-scale works that seem
at once threatening and fragile. For his installment in SFMOMA's ongoing New Work series, Schramm
presents a new piece that continues his pursuit of achieving balance between chaos and order, the
particular and the universal, and offers visitors an experience of physical tension in the Museum's gallery."
Link to SF MoMA "Project, Transform, Erase: McCall and Knoebel" site
"Anthony McCall and Imi Knoebel both have used deceptively simple projections with strikingly complex
effects. You and I, Horizontal (2005), a digital projection — and recent SFMOMA acquisition — by McCall,
draws on his 1970s-era solid-light film installations to create an engaging experience of light as a three
-dimensional beam and wall animation. Projektion X (1971-72) and Projektion X Remake (2005), two
versions of the same video concept by Knoebel, each feature a continuous stream of nighttime
streetscapes, illuminated only by a powerful X-shaped beam of light."
