The problem with now is that as soon as you conjure it up it becomes then. Even the tiny amount of time it takes your brain to process a single moment pushes it into the past, and the more you contemplate that moment, the farther it recedes into history.
That’s the challenge in “Now? Now!,” currently at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibit aims to capture, in a few dozen art works, some awareness about the exact point in time we are collectively experiencing, to magnify a thing that won’t sit still under the microscope.
In most ways, it succeeds, and colorfully. As far as museum shows fare, it will go down as the best thing Denver saw in the summer of 2015. It closes August 30, so there’s not a lot of time left to visit.
The strength of this exhibit is its international approach and inclusion of artists, of both genders, from across the hemisphere, something that remains rare in Colorado. “Now? Now!” is the signature show for the Biennial of the Americas, which aims to celebrate art and ideas from Canada to Argentina, a very long way on any map.
The biennial did most of its public festivities in July, though this show has lingered on. That’s a good thing because distance offers a good way to measure its goals. Does curator Lauren A. Wright’s “now” hold up now that six weeks have passed?
Yes, and no. Not surprisingly, time has progressed and that has served to separate the works with staying power from those whose moment has passed. It’s amazing how quickly that can happen.
Adam Pendleton’s “Black Lives Matter,” a gray-and-black, graffiti-inspired oil painting bearing those very words, felt pressing at the show’s opening July 14, an urgent message which turned the day’s headlines about racial unrest into art.
Now, it feels like yesterday’s news. Of course, black lives still matter, and the harsh degree of racial inequality in this country has not improved in a month and a half. But as a work of art, this “Black Lives Matter” seems under-developed. As a society, we’ve had time to go deeper than slogans, to begin examining causes, to prosecute, exonerate and forgive, and art needs to lead the discussion, not follow.
Much more interesting is Zach Blas’ “Facial Weaponization Suite,” which looks at the intersection of skin color and technology. The West Virginia native has created a series of masks that defy facial recognition software, exploring the bias it has against gender and shade. His pink, blue and black objects are a forward-looking exploration of just how institutionalized our prejudices can be.
In that way, the finer points of “now’ work themselves out throughout this show. Mexican artist Debora Delmar Corp.’s “Potential Development,” which recreates scenes from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s famously indulgent residence, seems topical after the immediate media storm has died down.
More lasting is Diego Berruecos‘ “Twentysix Closed Gas Stations in Mexico,” a set of black-and-white travel photos, which look at how economic privatization is changing the landscape, turning service stations into ghost buildings across his country. His reference to American artist Ed Ruscha’s landmark “Twentysix Gasoline Stations” from 1963, adds another layer of depth.
Similar durability permeates Canadian artist Sarah Anne Johnson’s “Arctic” series, which examines resource exploitation through location photographs that are manipulated with drawings and scratches. Denver photographer Kim Allen brings a local point of view with a set of keen black-and-white photos of Denver in the 1980s. Want to know what’s happening now physically? Look at these pictures, then look at all the development taking place right outside the windows.
“Now? Now!” has some jaw-dropping moments. Colombian artist Bernardo Ortiz hand draws thousands and thousands of tiny ones and zeros in pencil on sheet after sheet of paper mapping out the mathematics associated with one bitcoin trade. Mariana Castillo Deball covers an entire gallery floor with etched plywood plates recreating with modern technology the first map, circa 1521, of Mexico City where she lives
Denver artists Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman have created an entire, chest-high, table-top city with dozens of buildings churned out via a 3-D printer. They’re examining something we all share right now, the lower part of the sky between the earth’s surface and the clouds, and how our daily activities impact it. Blow on the piece and ripples flow through a plastic canopy hovering six-feet above – everything is connected, personal.
In some ways, “Now? Now!” gets out of hand, taking on politics, technology, racism, the environment, development all at once. The topic is broad and a few pieces, despite their solo merits, feel disconnected. A set of soccer balls and basketballs turned into tropical planters by Puerto Rican artist Radames “Juni” Figueroa are fun for sure, but off-theme, a distraction from the very serious stuff curator Wright has assembled.
Still, there’s order in the confusion, and it’s not hard to see what Wright was thinking or where she succeeds. What emerges from this collection is a portrait of a time when the map is getting smaller but the concerns are getting broader.
If she lacks discipline, then she is simply reflecting a world where discipline is a thing of the past, where everything — from the ease of international travel to ever-present media to the Internet — have combined to make so many things seem important all at once; a world where social media has given everyone a platform, and an audience, for sharing their concerns.
This is the finest sort of curating because it amounts to a work of art on its own. It takes individual pieces of art that connect the dots and connects them to each other. Alone, they speak, but together, they have a conversation that is only possible if someone brings them into the same room.
As a moderator, Wright knows when to give up control and when to bring order. This is difficult task when artists speak different languages to begin with, and come from different economies and social structures.
But that, of course, is the world we live in — fleetigng, diverse, problematic, agitated, moving — and this exhibit does all it can to hold it still just for a moment, just for now.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
“NOW? NOW!” The Museum of Contemporary art hosts a group show organized as part of the Biennial of the Americas. Curarted by Lauren A. Wright. Through Aug. 30. 1485 Delgany St. $8 adults. Free for 18 and under. 303-298-7554 or mcadenver.org.
