Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002

Rice Gallery: One saw; the other saw.- Through the Sallyport
Winter 2002
VOL.58, NO.2
Rice Gallery:
One saw; the other saw.
The fluidity of art, design, and music realized in Rice Gallery’s recent
installation, One saw; the other saw., exemplifies the gallery’s interest
in commissioning original works that challenge conventional
conceptions of the boundaries of visual art. On display from September
21 to October 28, the site-specific piece was created by Los Angelesbased
artist Jennifer Steinkamp and electronic music composer Jimmy
Johnson.
Heralded as a “digital diva” in the heady domain of the techno-savvy,
Steinkamp employs the latest in advanced technology to harness light and
motion to dazzling and often disturbing effect. She frequently collaborates
with Johnson to create engrossing environments that thwart the distinction
between the virtual and the real.
One saw; the other saw. consisted of a tunnel structure that bisected the
gallery, leading visitors from the rear of the space to a translucent screen
fitted to the center panel of the gallery’s front glass wall. A stream of
colorful, three-dimensional abstract animated images was projected onto
the screen by a high-resolution, ultrabright projector perched in the back of
the tunnel. Steinkamp designed the animation with high-end software more
typically used to create special effects in the movie industry.
The continually transforming geometrical forms, projected floor-to-ceiling,
suggested an unstable, surreal continuation of the physical tunnel built in
the gallery. Rendered in cheerful, candy-store pinks, oranges, blues, and
greens, the bouncing abstract forms promised escape into a delectable
realm of funhouse whimsy. But this playfulness was apposed with
disconcerting undercurrents—a mesmerizing swirl of white bars on the
picture plane could be interpreted as threatening barriers to passage or
outlet, and the jarring transformations of the images intimated the
distressing possibility of the ground shifting and falling away beneath one’s
feet. It is not surprising that Steinkamp cherishes it when visitors
sometimes experience seasickness and vertigo while viewing her work. The
installation’s curious conjunction of menace and caprice was amplified by
Johnson’s soundtrack in which eerie, cavernously low tones were
punctuated by perky bursts of sound reminiscent of video games. “The
soundtrack creates a sonic dimension to the space,” Steinkamp observed.
“The physical space is transformed by the audio.”
One saw, the other saw.
Photo by
Robert Wedemeyer
Flutter Flutter.
Photo by
Thomas DuBrock
Interactivity was an important aspect of the piece, and visitors in the tunnel
became integral parts of the visual movement as their shadows were cast on
the screen. Outside the gallery, visitors and passersby could see the crisp
silhouettes interrupting the otherwise intensely luminous plane of shifting
shapes and colors, drawing them in as unwitting voyeurs. High-tech
interactivity also played a role. Steinkamp and Johnson placed motion
detectors in the tunnel and in the busy foyer outside that, when activated by
visitors and passersby, caused the visual components to alter the tunnel’s
apparent perspective and the audio to emit various electronic tones. Many
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