This year was my first year attending The Whitney Biennial, an event held at the Whitney Museum showcases contemporary American art ranging from sculptures, paintings, films, and even virtual reality experiences. To me what makes this even even more special is that a fair amount of the artists showcased are new and upcoming young artists, a group of creators that I feel I can relate. With the young artists I found that many of the pieces on exhibition pertained to technology, life, issues, and concerns of the current times that my generation is facing, and I appreciate that an establishment gave these artists a chance to tell the world a story they wanted to share.

With the gallery experience however it was hard to pay attention to any particular piece of art in the form of video. There is always the issue of walking into a screening room in the middle of the piece and only getting half the story, unless one wanted to stick around to watch the first half. However I did end up doing just that for a short film that caught my interest due to it’s more inviting nature than other films on exhibition; The Flavor Genome by Anicka Yi.

What initially drew me to this was the fact that I was handed 3D glasses before I even walked into the screening space. I knew I was about to witness something different from the other pieces and it immediately caught my interest.  the aspect of 3D drew me in and what kept me there to watch from the beginning was, oddly enough, the seating the room had’ very comfortable cushions long enough for one to lay on. Unlike other rooms with a stiff benches this room was inviting it’s viewers to sit down, relax, and view the art. Whether it was the artist’s intention or not it certainly did the tick.

The film, which was 22 minutes in length, followed a hunt for a plant in Brazil that holds many beneficial properties, of which seem natural but also aid in what is artificial. The subject of the film speak of altering the senses to believe one thing is actually another, how flavors from one thing can be extracted from something else completely different, playing a trick on the senses. The film with the use of 3D technology reflects this by playing with the sense of sight of the viewer. It wasn’t the clear 3D one would see in Hollywood cinema but rather it was skewed, some objects were in focus, some were not, it began to play tricks on the eyes. I even tried readjusting my glasses over the ones I use to see with, thinking that was the problem but after discussion the experience with other viewers they also had the same experience. It almost gave me a sense of high between that and the vibrant use of colors throughout the film, it was quite a sensory overload. Film technologies, like medical and scientific technologies the film discussed,  alter perception and understanding of the world around us.

I visited the Blum & Poe art gallery to which is holding an exhibit on Agnes Varda. The name sounded familiar and I realized that I have seen some of her work in previous classes so I was very interested to see an actual exhibit on her. The gallery had a screening room of a short piece she did called Le Triptyque de Noirmoutier. The film was projected using three projectors and displayed on the wooden paneled door. The individual images were all still camera and comprised of a beach shot, a kitchen shot, and a cupboard shot. often times when one person (the main cast considered of an elderly woman, a middle aged man and women, and a young boy) would walk off screen from either a left or right direction they would end up in the other room or the beach itself (the beach instantly however)

The film is a 9 minute loop. I walked in what I assumed was the beginning but as it looped again for me I’m now thinking it could have been the end, the transition happens so fluidly it’s hard to tell. The spacing of the the room and placement of the viewing area puts the viewer in a position that their whole eyesight is filled with the film, almost giving it a sense of difficulty of which frame to focus on, not wanting to miss any detail or action in the other frames. This kept my eyes moving at all times, waiting in suspense for an action that sometimes would never come. The film depicts daily life at a beach side home, with the women doing house work while the man reads the paper and the child plays outside.  The noises would mix together from the three visual spaces, the sound of waves are accompanied by the peeling of potatoes and the clanking of cups in the other two spaces.

I was told that I was able to touch the board and pull the hinges closed if I wanted too, I didn’t since I was a it unsure but I like the idea that it was an interactive aspect of viewing the film, that the viewer can open and close the doors like the woman were opening and closing the cupboards, putting the viewer inside the space if they so desire. I think that may have been the goal for Varda, as she grew up in the same area with her family that this film was shot and that she wanted to bring the viewer in to be a part of her world, a part of a family..