We all know that exhibitions at MASS MoCA love being big. Really big. Sometimes artworks simply expand into a space, allowing large pieces and a lot of them. But often works are conceived or contrived for a particular gallery, engaging it, enabling a coordinated whole, transforming a viewer into a participant.
This, of course, pretty much defines the genre called installation art. And right now, two large installation projects create two very different, interesting semi-immersive experiences.
The larger of these, “Brake Run Helix,” takes experiencing an exhibition literally. EJ Hill has created a working, beautiful—and very pink—roller coaster that pretzels inside Building 5 like a carnival ride. Indeed, visitors can take part—if they plan a few months in advance. Sadly (and foolishly in my view), there is just one ride, for about twenty seconds, per hour.
That means most of the time the work is static. It looks good enough as a kind of formally curvaceous sculpture, but you are meant, I suppose, to imagine the work as a comment on working roller coasters, or to marvel at the chutzpah of putting a roller coaster in an art museum.
“Brake Run Helix”
- When: through January 2024
“Carrie Schneider: Sphinx”
- When: through September 2023
- Where: MASS MoCA, North Adams, Mass.
- Hours: Wednesday-Monday, 10am–5pm. Summer hours beginning May 24: Wednesday-Monday,10am–6pm.
- Admission: Adults $20, Seniors / Veterans $18, Students with ID $12, Kids (6–16) $8, EBT/WIC Cardholder $2. Kids 5 and under free.
- Info: https://massmoca.org/event/carrie-schneider-sphinx/
https://massmoca.org/event/ej-hill/
or 413-662-2111
Once you accept this audacity—I can only imagine the insurance company’s reaction—there is the problem of life itself. As Robert Rauschenberg (who had his own giant show in this very space…
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