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‘Girls’ Night Out’ at the Addison, plus ‘Dreaming Now’ at the Rose, and ‘Outpost’ at Mass Art
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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One of the most riveting videos at the 2001 Venice Biennale (and there was a lot of video at the 2001 Venice Biennale) was a short film that shows a young woman in jogging gear, outside after a run on a cold day, peering through the blinds as a bare-chested young man performs athletic rodeo tricks with a lasso in what looks to be his parents’ tidy living room. Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack from Sergio Leone’s Once upon a Time in the West swells in the background as the girl seems to cry (or is it only the cold?), unseen. Made by then-27-year-old Finnish artist Salla Tykkä, "Lasso" (2000) exposes something terribly vulnerable about the young girl, and also something terribly ordinary — the irresistibly sad music contributes to our reading of her emotions as much as her facial expressions do, just as the lasso itself conjures cultural associations that are at interesting odds with the well-appointed living room. Tykkä is one of 10 female artists, from different countries and from different generations, whose work makes up "Girls’ Night Out," which opens at the Addison Gallery of American Art on January 22. "Girls’ Night Out" features photographs and/or video by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Elina Brotherus, Dorit Cypis, Rineke Dijkstra, Katy Grannan, Sarah Jones, Kelly Nipper, Daniela Rossell, Shirana Shahbazi, and Tykkä. From Dijkstra’s large-scale portraits of young American ballet dancers to Rossell’s images of privileged young women in their opulent homes in Mexico City to Shahbazi’s surprising photographs of contemporary Iranian women, this is work by artists who have shrugged off preconceived ideas about Women in order to look closely at women, or those in the process of becoming women. The stuff of dreams is the focus of "Dreaming Now," which opens at the Rose Art Museum on January 27. The show asks whether dreams are purely a private matter, between our pillows and ourselves, or whether they implicate the world around us as well. Eight interactive, multi-dimensional dream environments have been created by Marina Abramovic, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Sandra Cinto, Cai Guo-Quiang, Frans Jacobi, William Kentridge, Chiharu Shiota, and David Solow, and each one reflects the cultural perspective of its maker. Cai Guo-Quiang stretches a billowing red silk flag across the floor of the Rose below a multitude of red silk lanterns that cast the only light in the room, uniting the world of dreams with modern China. Brazil’s Sandra Cinto contributes a seven-panel wall drawing with stars, islands, ladders, and ocean waves that she associates with the transformative potential of dreams. You can even take a little nap in Marina Abramovic’s installation; the Yugoslavian-born artist creates a "Dream Bed" that visitors can curl up in for an hour, so as to experience dreaming in public, something that’s usually frowned on. Dreams of a better tomorrow inform the utopian works in "Outpost," which opens at Massachusetts College of Art on January 26. Artists including Miguel Calderon, Sam Durant, Barbara Gallucci, Justine Kurland, Suzanne Sinclair, Sigrid Sandström, and Mark Wallinger investigate the urge to improve the human condition using movements from Transcendentalism to hippie-ism to Modernism as springboards to depicting social nirvana. "Girls’ Night Out" is at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street in Andover, January 22 through April 3; call (978) 749-4015. "Dreaming Now" is at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, 415 South Street in Waltham, January 27 through April 24; call (781) 736-3434. "Outpost" is at Massachusetts College of Art, Paine Gallery, 621 Huntington Avenue in Boston, January 26 through March 19; call (617) 879-7333.
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