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By Betsy DiJulio
Whether you need a little exuberance, pathos, quiet contemplation, or sly humor in your life, you will find it in MOCAâs current exhibition, Charged.
Curated by Heather Hakimzadeh after a long incubation period, the show is her multi-layered answer to the question of what role new media plays in the contemporary art world. âChargedâ is a double entendre referring both to the role of electricity and the emotional âchargeâ touched off by the eight works that comprise the exhibition. If that sounds small, the exhibition makes up in depth what it may lack in square footage. Still it left me craving more. Â
Inspired by the exhibition of âNight Hunterâ by Stacey Steers at MOCA in summer 2013, Hakimzadeh took her time in piecing together a thoughtful exhibition with a splash of ooh-ah, but one that avoids reliance on the wow factor for impact. Her highly intentional approach to the curation of this exhibition offers viewers the opportunity to feel a spectrum of subtle emotionsâintimacy, anxiety, releaseâand construct a range of questions, many about what it means to be human in a technology-mediated world.
For this exhibition, Hakimzadeh chose Steersâ âOculus II,â a captivating blend of old and new in which nostalgia and a vintage aesthetic combine with a contemporary sensibility and technology. Through a highly personal process, this Colorado-based filmmaker spends years on each pieceâfive on this oneâlaboriously and intricately blending thousands of handmade works on paper with actors from silent films to create evocative narratives. Â
Entitled, âThe Edge of Alchemy,â this film starring Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor, viewed through a circular construction of found and antique objects, creates an intimate viewing experience for this beautiful, but ominous Frankenstein-inspired tale about the creation of a hybrid bee-woman with all of the implications that implies about the perilous plight of bees and the collapse not just of colonies, but our food supply. Â
Born in Mexico and residing in Canada, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer uses facial recognition and surveillance technology in âThe Yearâs Midnightâ to raise serious questions using gallows humor about what we lose when our lives are wittingly or unknowingly mediated by technology. Without ruining the surprise, suffice it to say that your digital fate will be the same as St. Lucyâs, the Patron Saint of the Blind.Â
A work like âBody Paintâ by Memo Akten, born in Turkey and based in London, also responds to viewersâ movementsâeven subtle onesâwith exploding and discreet streaks and vibrations of tropical colors across a wall-sized digital canvas. The resulting compositions ebb, flow, and evolve over time as visitors explore their relationships to their own bodies and to their particular ways of moving through space mediated by the self-consciousness that comes with being observed and recorded. Â
In the adjacent gallery, a work like âPygmiesâ by Pors and Rao responds only to viewersâ silence. Patienceâand silenceâis rewarded by the emergence of shy little wooden forms that peak out from behind three white rectangular panels. At the first sound, they quickly retract, their movements controlled by timed motors. Â
Anthropomorphism also plays a role also in the duoâs other exhibited works: âObserversâ and âHeavy Hat.â Engineering, computer programming, and manufacturing coalesce to produce human-like forms in these collaborations by Aparna Rao from India and Søren Pors from Denmark.  The âobserversâ are identical forms with a distinctly Netherlandish aesthetic arranged in a set of descending wall-mounted rows. They snap their âheadsâ right and left in unison in response to other presences. Â
Nearby, an upside-down figure rolls around on his âheavy hatâ teetering this way and that in response to detected presences, creating a tension akin to watching someone ride a unicycle for the first time. Viewers, as catalysts, are made to feel vaguely responsible for the lunging movements and the ultimate safety of this up-ended figure.
Electronic new media pioneer Alan Rathâs two robotic arms in âYet Again,â swing, rotate, hover, and flutter in response to open-ended algorithms. The possibilities for the armsâ behavior evolve over time creating a kind of choreography in which the arms appear to converse and even flirt.
Long-time collaborators, Ross Birrell and David Harding, explore âfugaâ from which âfugueâ and ârefugeeâ derive in âTriptychâ a video documentation of a symphonic performance across three screens, not unlike a tripartite altarpiece. Here, visitors sit on an artist-designed benchâa kind of folded triptych, if you willâto view the Athens State Orchestra, the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra, and Syrian soprano Rasha Rizk perform Henryk Goreckiâs 1976 Symphony No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Whether one understands the language, the emotional toll of individual and collective loss and deprivation is seen, felt, and heard. Â
From now through mid-February MOCA would is a good place to get your STEAM on.
WANT TO SEE?
ChargedÂ
Through February 16, 2020
MOCA, 2200 Parks Avenue, VA Beach
757.425.0000/VirginiaMOCA.org