Four New Exhibitions Have Opened At The Aldrich Museum

RIDGEFIELD — The Ridgefield Museum of Contemporary Art recently celebrated the opening of four exhibitions.

“Halsey Burgund: ROUND,” on view until July 27, is an audio installation that will solicit spoken voice contributions from visitors and use them as part of a musical composition intended to be listened to while viewing the work on view in the galleries. The interactive audio experience will allow visitors to hear a diverse range of voices — artists, curators, and visitors — sharing their perspectives about the exhibitions and to add their responses.

The comments will be collected in a database of recordings and subsequently incorporated into the piece. Thus, there will be a continual loop of opinion and emotional response, all contained within a musical work. The flexible infrastructure developed and built for the installation will be the basis for future audio tours at the museum.

“Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture,” also on view until July 27, was curated by Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut. It is being presented by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum with the Yale School of Architecture Gallery; one portion opened at Yale on February 11, and the second opened at The Aldrich on March 9.

Sleek modern houses that float on icebergs nestle into idealized painted landscapes or become the backdrop for surreal emotional dramas are some of the images to be seen in the 16-artist group exhibition that invites viewers to reconsider modern architecture and what it has come to represent for a new generation.

Modern architecture is generally identified with buildings by Le Corbusier, Philip Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright, which represent a period driven by developments in technology, engineering, and the introduction of industrial materials such as iron, steel, concrete, and glass. Architects at this time engaged in a practice that not only incorporated structural innovations, but also encouraged social change.

The artists featured in the exhibition are interested not only in the potential of utopian ideas, but also the sense of a passing idealism that modern architecture now embodies.

“The artists are less interested in the built structures themselves and what it might feel like to be inside one, and more interested in the philosophy and idealism they represent. The way in which the buildings signal a possibility of utopia is essential—a future that could have been. Sentimentality runs through much of the work,” said Ms Hough.

Ms Ramírez-Montagut added: “This melancholic remembrance comes at a time when great works of modern architecture are at risk due to neglect, deterioration, and demolition. Underlying all the artworks is a feeling of deep admiration for the architects who sought to elevate culture and bring it to the broad masses, yet their sense of failure is also prevalent; the artists’ knowledge of modern architecture’s crisis and demise tints their works with some kind of nostalgia.”

“Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture” brings together two-dimensional works of various media, including video, that explore an interest among emerging artists in architecture of the modern period.

The exhibition includes work by Alexander Apóstol, Daniel Arsham, Gordon Cheung, David Claerbout, Angela Dufresne, Mark Dziewulski, Christine Erhard, Cyprien Gaillard, Terence Gower, Angelina Gualdoni, Natasha Kissell, Luisa Lambri, Dorit Margreiter, Russell Nachman, Enoc Perez, and Lucy Williams.

In order to fully appreciate the project, viewers will be encouraged to visit The Aldrich and Yale. Additionally, a book related to the exhibition is being co-published by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Mills College Art Museum, and Yale University Press, and is scheduled for a fall 2008 release.Ester Partegàs is presenting the first work in the museum’s Main Street Sculpture Project for 2008 with her site-specific installation, “The Invisible,” on view until August 10.

Inspired by the original use of the museum’s historic “Old Hundred” as a general store, the artist has transformed the façade of the administration building with an illuminated awning based on the designs that grace countless bodegas and convenience stores in American cities. Instead of the usual bodega signage, Ms Partegàs’s intervention instead features text that poetically reflects on the experience of visiting an art museum. The work plays with the awning’s change of context: urban/suburban, Latino/Anglo-Saxon, and food store/art store. The awning also shelters the front steps from the elements, providing a porch for strolling citizens to congregate and socialize.

“Gary Panter: Daydream Trap, ” on view until August 31, explores his sketchbooks, which are the spawning ground for many of the artist’s ideas, and his paintings, which are a significant part of his artistic output yet never have been put in critical perspective.

Mr Painter’s work, which is difficult to categorize, has appeared in (among other places), Art Speigelman’s groundbreaking graphic magazine RAW, television’s Pee Wee’s Playhouse (three Emmy Awards for set design), and numerous major book projects. In 2000 he was the recipient of the Chrysler Design Award, an annual award that acknowledges individuals from the world of design who have significantly influenced American culture.

In 2005 Mr Panter’s work was included in the traveling exhibition “Masters of American Comics,” which was organized by UCLA Hammer Museum and LA MoCA.

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art is at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield. For more information call 203-438-4519 or visit AldrichArt.org.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 5 pm. Admission is $7 for adults, and $4 for college students. Admission for all visitors is free every Tuesday.

Ask Me tours are offered Sundays from 2 to 4 pm. Free with each paid admission, these are docent-guided tours of the current exhibition that run at 3, and then a docent is on hand in the galleries to answer questions.