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by J. Isaac Spradlin
An in-depth look at the work Dune 4.0 in downtown Louisville.
Artist Daan Roosegaarde gave a joybuzzer of a presentation at Ideafestival in Louisville on Sept. 25 that got the crowd tingling about art and architecture and technology.
It was the most exciting and entertainingly-delivered mashup of ideas and artful execution I've seen in some time (except for the documentary Copyright Criminals shown earlier in the week about, yes, mashups and sampling). I really looked forward to experiencing the Dune 4.0 installation on a stretch of scaffold-covered sidewalk across from the Bristol on Main Street until October 20.
First, we should applaud artwithoutwalls and director Alice Gray Stites for bringing the remarkable Roosegaarde to Louisville in partnership with IF09. Seriously, his art practice generates exactly the kind of immediately-accessible work (compared to so much of the readily-available contemporary inscrutable museum art) that can open conversations and create quality family time to boot. Plus, a forum like IdeaFestival provides a perfect platform for introducing tech-linked art to a huge audience of thoughtful, young-at-heart innovators. Kudos.
Now for Dune 4.0:
I'm hip to the notion that sometimes it's an artwork's idea rather than beauty that leaves you gobsmacked, and I'm no stranger to the wacked-out artsy sleights-of-hand available in major (and minor) musuems around the country that leave many people more mystified than they already were about art's purpose. I even came out of the "Generational: Younger Than Jesus" show at the New Museum in Manhattan thinking that it could have only been better had there been a bit more polish on the works (overall there was a feeling of "cheapness" to the stuff).
But here in downtown Louisville was an installation that was almost breathtaking for it's out-of-placeness. That's both good and bad.
The overall execution of the Dune work here in Louisville didn't quite measure up to the crisp fit and finish that Roosegaarde's other iterations in Europe have managed. It's no fault of the artist, I suspect. Had this piece been installed in the hallway between Proof and the reception desk at 21C, the art could have looked naturally suited to the museum's visual ecosystem. But in an ad-hoc, plywood-floored tarped-over sidewalk cave on Main Street it was just hard to make any sense of it.
My big concern is that though I'd seen the artist and heard him present his ideas and was (am) genuinely impressed, I was at-sea inside Dune 4.0. There's a dissonance between the slickness of Roosegaarde's high-tech take on sustainability and the imposed, throwaway artificiality of the construction-inflected setting.
Taken another way, I suppose that this dissonance can be instructive and offer a valuable takeaway for the audience. Maybe there's something about urban renewal, some cry for help from Ohio River wildlife needing preservation. But neither the artist nor Stites talked about anything like this during the hour and the result, I'm afraid, is that I'm not sure they they got what they expected.
Check it out for yourself through October 20 on Main Street in downtown Louisville, near the Science Center.
[And just so you know, the worm joke in the title of this post refers to the movie and book, both titled Dune. The artwork contains neither killing words nor giant worms, but the book does. And remember, "The worm IS the spice."]
Photo used with permission from Christopher Hall at LouisvilleMojo.com.
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J.Isaac Spradlin
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This blog features original commentary, reporting, criticism, reviews, and other writing about Louisville art, lit, culture, and what-have-you by local, recently returned writer J. Isaac Spradlin.
Feel free to contact the writer with any news, events, advance notices, rumors, or bad jokes via twitter @ispradlin or email ispradlin@gmail.com. Thanks.
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