Customer Reviews

Ecstasy: In and About Altered States

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Walking into the cavernous spaces of the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles where the current exhibition ECSTASY: IN AND ABOUT ALTERED STATES is a mind molding experience. This very fine catalogue compiled by Paul Schimmel, the Chief Curator, and Lisa Mark is exceedingly well done. Though the exhibition lends itself more to the experience of interacting with the art, this book/catalogue manages to take us there as successfully as any publication could.

The curatorial concept addresses the results of sensory interaction with both representational and experimental art forms. The effects of mind-altering drugs informs many of the installations, as does hypnosis of the artist prior to executing art, and the clever manipulation of visual perceptions. Reading this intelligent book is a bit of Alice in Wonderland, a bit of staring at those dot pictures whose incongruous doodlings become a startling picture while the eye stares at a point, and a bit of the 1960s psychedelic art at which we chuckle now. And ah, the walk under ceiling-suspended upside down mushrooms - one of the many fantasy excursions 'contained' at the Geffen.

In less practiced hands a topic of this sort that depends so heavily on sensory perception would not be translated into book form. But Schimmel and Mark make it work as well as any other part of the content! This is an important topic, an important exhibition, and an important document. Recommended. Grady Harp, November 05