On the day that I recently visited the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, I was in a pretty poopy mood, until I saw the show that is.
Travel isn’t always roses and fabulousness. Sometimes it can kinda suck. I was having one of those unavoidable down days and didn’t have much faith that it would get better, I was sitting with a lot of emotional sludge that had been coming up. I was breathing, watching my mind and trying as best I could to honor the sludge but, to be honest, I was a bit lost in it. Thank goodness that we chose that day to go to Denver and check out the Museum of Contemporary Art. The show on view was “Fieldwork” by Tara Donovan and it totally blew my mind.
Donovan creates large installations that transform familiar materials into alien and wondrous objects. One piece in particular sucked me in and with its bizarre magic, somehow made me feel restored. The piece (pictured), was constructed with Mylar and filled up the space of the small gallery it was located in. The whole show, but this piece in particular, jolted me out of my funk. Standing among the huge spheres of frilly Mylar, I suddenly felt small and pleasantly taken over by the work. I became a witness and an intruder to a foreign and beautiful world. I was delighted that a person took the time to make this. Other works by Donovan included a large wall filled up with plastic straws. They were stacked horizontally, jutting outward toward the viewer. From across the room the piece looked like a cloud with its odd texture and airy quality. When you walk up to it though, your eyes get lost in all of the thousands of tiny holes staring back at you. Each time she installs this piece she uses all new straws which really made me consider these ubiquitous, single-use dolphin killers in a new way. In a neighboring gallery there were glittery works on wood. Tiny nails had been pounded into squares of wood creating effects that invite the viewer to walk back and forth in front of the works, getting lost in the light bouncing off of the “brushstrokes”.
All in all I left the museum feeling at once refreshed and so very tired. The works filled me up and wore me out but somehow also healed something in me. On the way home, I slept in the car curled up in the backseat, something I cannot usually do, as my partner drove us the two hours back to where we were staying.
When I awoke I felt quiet inside. Great art, in my opinion, is so much more than pretty objects. It enters you and dances around and shifts something within you. That’s exactly how I felt about this show. I highly encourage people who have the means to go take a look at all of the engaging works presented by Donovan at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.
Fieldwork is on view until January 27, 2019.
