THE EXPERIENCE
The visitor experience begins with introductory photos and text about Warhol. From there, the exhibition unfolds loosely in sections:
• At the heart of Other Voices, Other Rooms—as a thread that winds through the center’s angular galleries and up the ramp (which is covered with a red carpet especially for this show)—is the Cosmos, highlighting Warhol’s ways of thinking and working, and his imperturbable eye for detail. The first gallery introduces the Cosmos with 40 of his Screen Tests (with screens suspended from the rafters, featuring Warhol’s filmic portraits or “screen tests” of Factory personalities); audio listening booths, with audio fragments of Lou Reed, Truman Capote, and others in Warhol’s world; self-portrait wallpaper; a Brillo Box; and record covers, Interview magazines, and other archival material. Installed up the ramp are The Factory Diaries, in which Warhol captured life on video in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, offering glimpses of such celebrities as Edie Sedgwick, John F. Kennedy Jr., and David Bowie; also up the ramp are photographs of Warhol by others. Later in the show visitors will see the 1967 filmic document of Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the series of multimedia events that featured music by The Velvet Underground; objects from one of his Time Capsules (featuring items and detritus from his everyday life); and the interactive Silver Clouds—essentially large floating “pillows” (partially filled with helium) that drift around the room and among visitors.
• In the forest-like Filmscape section (pictured on page 1)—filling the two middle galleries at the Wexner Center—visitors explore a cinematic landscape that includes 19 films on large screens made between 1963 and 1968, including Sleep, The Chelsea Girls, Kitchen, and Mrs. Warhol. These films were Warhol’s experiments; secluded behind the camera, he depicts—without intervening—behavior in all types of situations, using time and observation as his ingredients. Thanks to a special audio design with directional speakers above each screen, this room allows for viewing each film as a distinct piece. These rooms also feature his “Mao” and “Cow” wallpapers.
• The red-white-and-blue TV-Scape section (pictured on page 1) of the exhibition presents, synchronously, all 42 television episodes that Warhol created between 1979 and 1987, along with a selection of rarely screened videos. Each TV program has its own screen and star-shaped seat announcing the celebrity featuring in that particular TV segment. In this section of the exhibition, the artist projects his voyeurism onto everyone—stars and ordinary people alike—in the medium that seemed best suited to the job. Warhol had a keen eye for detail and trivia, which carried over into and influenced the development of print media (such as in his magazine Interview) and broadcast, as evidenced in the TV-Scape.In addition, The Box video space in the Center’s lower lobby will be devoted to the filmic works of Warhol throughout the run of the show.
Follow the construction of the installation of Other Voices, Other Rooms at wexarts.org/wexblog.
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Andy Warhol (1928–1987), more than any other artist, merged the public with the private, the glamorous with the mundane, celebrity with anonymity, and ravenous voyeurism with seeming indifference. Well before the proliferation of media culture, he famously predicted that everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame—virtually foretelling the advent of American Idol and YouTube. Drawing upon the quite radical impulses coursing through American culture in the ’60s, Warhol incisively captured and reflected much that would ultimately demarcate a sea change in our social fabric of that time, with potent ramifications since.
Says curator Eva Meyer-Hermann, “Andy Warhol once wondered about how it would be if one mirror would reflect another. He declared that everything which we want to know can be seen on the surfaces of him and his works. I thought I had to look behind these surfaces, but realized that what we are looking for is not behind but in front of them. Warhol’s surfaces reflect the world; his works are about you and me.” A podcast featuring Meyer-Hermann discussing Warhol and this exhibition is available here (or access it via wexarts.org/wexblog (filed under “Exhibitions”).
via a Wexner Center press release
OMG. I am SO excited. The Wex is so fortunate to be the only place in the US to have this exhibit! And I get to cover it! Woo!
