Art with a techno twist

Young Chang

Go ahead, dance!

Jump out and do it, urged Beverly Bain, a docent at the Orange County

Museum of Art. But nobody listened. So she took a step forward.

Against footage of what looked like bleeding tie-dye and

psychedelic-colored rays, in a totally black room lit only by the image

being projected, Bain did a small, reserved boogie. Just to prove she

could.

This is the nature of the museum’s “One Wall: A Video Series,” which

ends Sept. 9. It’s unconventional, creative and rather spontaneous.

With the current film “X-Ray Eyes,” the one with the dizzying colors,

it’s interactive in that shadows matter. Bain took it upon herself to

play with her own silhouette, teaching onlookers that art can change with

the perception and spur-of-the-moment attitude of each viewer.

It’s definitely not what you’d expect to find in a museum -- where

pieces typically hang on a wall or sit still on the floor -- but the

series’ six videos blend in because, in the end, it’s all art.

Video as an art medium goes back only a few decades, according to

Christopher Miles, curator of the exhibit.

“Now we have an opportunity to see what is happening as the medium is

becoming much more accessible in terms of cost to the artist and what you

can do with the technology,” he said.

Los Angeles artists Jennifer Steinkamp and Jimmy Johnson are the

makers of the “X-Ray Eyes,” which shows through April 9. Four sections of

abstract computer animation that seem to spiral centrally, as well as out

at you, each play for about a minute. The image suddenly stops, but there

is an illusion of continued movement.

“You get this optical effect that happens because of retinal fatigue,”

Steinkamp said. “It actually looks kind of like an acid trip.”

The artist added that this type of perception, which is affected by

the way the eyes and brain work, can make the viewer question perception

in general.

“The fallibility of humans and those kinds of things, what’s really

going on,” she said.

Such grand, philosophical questions aside -- she assures us “X-Ray

Eyes” isn’t a thesis on the matter -- the video is also aesthetically

interesting.

“It’s a really beautiful and incredible experience when an image stops

and you see it moving, or your brain says it’s moving but it’s not,”

Steinkamp said.

Kevin Hanley’s work, “Recounting a Dancing Man,” will show April 10

through May 7. The 90-minute video is copied and manipulated video

footage of Fred Astaire’s dance routine from “The Belle of New York.”

Hanley digitized the image using a basic computer editing program and

controlled the moving picture with his mouse.

“So you’re watching Fred Astaire’s image move in direct correlation to

the movement of my hand,” he said.

But the art isn’t exactly puppeteering.

“Puppeteering is too much about control. What I’ve done is about

losing control,” Hanley said. “There is a direct correlation, but you’re

really seeing space between my hand movement and a body on film. For me,

it really opens up that distance.”

Hanley said “Recounting” exemplifies, in the most economic way,

movement and sound being produced in a single body.

Miles says this is part of the value of this art medium.

“I think what this work is doing right now is really redefining what

we think about video,” he said. “I think what these artists are doing is

they’re fleshing out the full range.”

FYI

WHAT: “One Wall: A Video Series”

WHEN: “X-Ray Eyes” through April 9; “Recounting a Dancing Man” April

10-May 7; “Book of Seconds” and “Cosmic Dancer” May 8-June 4; “Work

Actions Video” June 5-July 2; “Ruby Slippers” July 3-August 6;

“Sweetemo,” “Wise Blood,” and “Revival of Bill Mackey” Aug. 7-Sept. 9.

Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

WHERE: Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport

Beach

COST: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students, free for children

under 16 and members.

CALL: (949) 759-1122