I ñigo Manglano-Ovalle @ MASS MoCA

Always After (The Glass House), 2006 by Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

The video, Always After (The Glass House), currently up at Mass MoCA as part of the exhibit Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned With stands as an amazing example of really how great of an art-viewing facility this museum really is. Projected on a massive screen that you reach after a long walk through one of the exhibition halls, the video piece is something to experience. You are able to stand in the room alone and watch a striking visual of a glass pane shattering to a haunting soundtrack of echoing breaking glass. The soundtrack is the cherry that makes the space truly transform the work. Also key, is being in an uncrowded room, so you can surrender to the rhythm of the glass being swept up.

The absence of knowing in the piece—of what has caused the pane to break and who the responsible accomplices are, combined with the empty room you are ideally in, heighten the experience that catalog describes as "making you palpably aware you have arrived too late." If perhaps you had just moved faster maybe you would have made it in time to see the responsible action. (It is worth noting that the glass breaking is actually caused by Mies Van Der Rohe's grandson breaking windows with a gilded hammer.)

Born Madrid in 1961, Manglano-Ovalle was raised in Bogotá and Chicago. He studied art and art history, and Latin American and Spanish literature at Williams College, and received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. He currently lives and works in Chicago, and has been featured on the always-terrific Art 21. They write of his work:

Manglano-Ovalle’s technologically sophisticated sculptures and video installations use natural forms such as clouds, icebergs, and DNA as metaphors for understanding social issues such as immigration, gun violence, and human cloning. In collaboration with astrophysicists, meteorologists, and medical ethicists, Manglano-Ovalle harnesses extraterrestrial radio signals, weather patterns, and biological code, transforming pure data into digital video projections and sculptures realized through computer rendering. His strategy of representing nature through information leads to an investigation of the underlying forces that shape the planet as well as points of human interaction and interference with the environment.

You can check out more of Manglano-Ovalle's work on his website. He also currently has work on view at the Williams College Museum of Art. The exhibit Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned With remains on view through October 10, 2010. I highly recommend a visit, and you can also view the Sol Lewitt retrospective while you're out there.

Comments

[Heritage Resort Coorg]

This is an ideal place for a quiet weekend alone or a holiday with your kind or if it's an out of office workshop or corporate outing, Heritage resort has something for everyone. A variety of indoor and outdoor recreational activities await you here.