On March 15th, 2018, Megan Kirkwood and I traveled by train downtown to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. We saw many unpleasant views of industrial waste material as well as outdated store fronts that welcome visitors exiting the train. Once we arrived downtown, we embraced the architecture that makes up Union Station and then realized we had about a mile long walk to the Art Institute of Chicago. Along our walk we encountered lots of street art. (See images below.) Finally, we arrived and began to explore the museum. Primarily, we analyzed the contemporary and modern section of the museum but also looked at an exhibit called “Shockingly Mad” which displayed Henry Fuseli’s work from the early 1800’s.
I have studied many fine artists whose work dates before the 21st century, but I am briefly exposed and encouraged, and rarely motivated to analyze contemporary work and therefore I decided to challenge myself to evaluate a contemporary piece of performance artwork. At the Art Institute of Chicago, Philippe Parreno has an interactive display called “My Room Is Another Fish Bowl” which has been constructed from 1996 to 2016. This interactive piece contains helium-filled balloons in the shape of fish which float at different heights. (See image below.) Parreno has lots of work focused around the theme of animism which is the idea that there is a possibility that objects may have an inner life, spirit or agency. I think that this reoccurring theme in his work is very interesting; however, this piece focuses on the human interaction with the Mylar balloons as a performance people watch and take part of that no two people will have the same. The fish do not move because of some inner spirit, but because of the spirit within the people.
Contemporary art has always seemed rather foolish to me due to its common lack of technique and skill, yet it has some under evaluated benefits. Contemporary art as a whole does provide something stronger in terms of visual culture. Contemporary artists generally make low-level technical art and support it with meaning. People who experience the artwork, whether it is performance-based or not, are forced to pick apart the simplicity of art and are given more freedom for interpretation. They are then encouraged to consider the ways in which they encounter these things in the context around them as opposed to the environment of a museum with white walls. “My Room Is Another Fish Bowl” may typically have people question how this piece of work is fine art or say that this is fun for the kids. These two ideas are starting points at which people begin to analyze how balloons function in their own homes at their child’s birthday party. Contemporary art is overrated and underrated because of its misunderstanding as a gateway to hyperawareness of different environments. There is too much reward given to these artists as they do not display the high technical abilities art needs to be a sustainable being. At the same time, when presented with contemporary art’s open-ended time for exploration and connection to environment, it is underrated.
“My Room Is Another Fish Bowl” allowed me to be a part of an environment I have yet to be a part of because it provided a unique underwater experience. One of my biggest fears is swimming in oceans, deep water, or murky water. Although, this piece of work does not highly replicate what it is like to be a fish, I was able to experience an environment where objects slowly glide past you. Not all balloons were gliding slowly past me and in fact, many children were spinning and punching the balloons, but for a moment I was able to experience what serenity may feel like in the ocean, which has never crossed my mind when I think about the ocean or being immersed in water. I think in some ways, the white walls of the gallery created a stopping point for my eyes similar to the loss of visibility that occurs in the ocean. I was in an open area, yet my vision was confined and at the same time I was able to feel safe.
Contemporary art work such as Philippe Parreno’s, “My Room Is Another Fish Bowl”, is credible artwork due to its environment. It creates a link between the way we think about fine art in galleries and their application to environments outside of rooms with white walls. There is no required schema of the history of the era because you are the history of the time period which allows you to make immediate connections to the world around you. Much of the artwork Kirkwood and I saw during our walk to and from the Art Institute of Chicago exposed us to the art that requires no white walls for meaning, but fast-paced and loud noise for a chaotic environment as support to its meaning. (See image below.) As we traveled back outside the city on the train, the views outside of industrial waste reminded me why the white walls mean so much. They are a confining space to bring about the serenity I felt as juxtaposition to the reality of the real world.
