It can’t be easy to create an installation that can both complement and compete with Santiago Calatrava’s stunning Windhover Hall in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Quadracci Pavilion, but the second annual Winter Series installation has managed to do it.
Netherlands-based DRIFT has adapted its 2017 “Meadow” installation to the space with fabulous results. It will hang in the museum through April 13.
The series of 18 dangling, illuminated “buds” that bloom into what look as much like tutus and skirts as they do origami flowers.
Like its setting, “Meadow” – which runs on a hypnotic, unpredictable bloom schedule – is simple, but dynamic and beautiful.
Although it's crafted from aluminum, stainless steel, robotic claw-like components and fabric, the work feels organic.
I've only seen it during daylight hours but I bet it looks great in the evening.
The installation was created by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta who founded the multidisciplinary DRIFT studio in 2007.
“Of course the building is extraordinary and extravagant and already a sculpture in itself,” says Gordijn in a video call from Amsterdam. “And my first response was, 'this building does not need anything because it's already a sculpture.' What we tried to do is to see how we can go against it without disrupting it, using an installation that draws you into the space and makes you see the size of the space.
“The elements are all the same size, and by placing them at different heights, they start to look smaller and smaller and it creates a little bit of human proportion in the space, and makes you feel maybe even better the size of the space ... and still makes it look organic.”
Because it’s impossible to predict which buds will open next and how quickly or entirely they will open, “Meadow” is ever-changing. That’s what makes it so engaging and hypnotic. You could find yourself gazing at it for a long time.
“You'll find people just laying on the floor, watching the flowers open and close," says exhibition’s curator Shoshana Resnikoff, MAM’s Demmer Curator of 20th- and 21st-Century Design. “It's kind of amazing to see a group of people that don't know each other all lay down on the floor next to each other.
“When you watch the blooms bloom, you'll see that most of the time they don't bloom fully, and so it really does reward longer looking times because once you watch it open halfway or open three-quarters of the way, it's so satisfying to see them all bloom at once fully.”
Gordijn says she was happy to see images of people laying under "Meadow."
"I was very excited that people actually feel free to behave in these ways and spend time," she says.
Speaking of spending time, both Resnikoff and Gordijn talk about the amount of preparation that went into adapting the work – which has been installed around the world, always tinkered to reflect its setting – for the Milwaukee Art Museum.
“It was very collaborative,” says the artist. “It's not something on its own. It really needs to work here in this space. So we make many, many versions. The space is quite complex, so to really understand it requires some time with the architectural drawings. (Then) we had a test set up in our studio for the programming, but then when you see it in the space, everything is about the relationship between people and how you experience things.
“When it's really hanging there, there's usually something that has to be tweaked, and we went back and forth with my colleague who was installing it with videos on the programming and the colors and we did some adjustments. Every space has a different energy and sometimes you have to bring energy into space and sometimes you have to absorb energy and make people calm.”
For Resnikoff, part of the excitement of the collaboration was that the installation took place over the course of two weeks right out in the open, where museum visitors could watch the progress.
“This whole space was closed off and we had a lot of visitors coming in and watching,” she says. “We also had these great opportunities with school kids where the technician from DRIFT would come down and show them how the flowers worked, which was pretty wonderful.
“We got to work out in public and show how a project like this comes together, which we don't often get a chance to do. Generally speaking, when we're putting together a show, we're behind closed doors and then when it's totally perfect and done, we open the doors and people come in. That's wonderful, but it's also really fun to show our work and make transparent the process of putting together something like this.”
For DRIFT, who are big fans of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the opportunity to work in the space was also a draw.
“We were so excited when (MAM) got in touch,” says Gordijn, “because it has been a long-term dream for us to collaborate with Calatrava. In this case, we did not speak with him, but we worked with his, I would say sculpture. It still remains on the wish list to do a project from scratch with him, but we were very, very excited.
“His approach feels like life forms – partly animals, partly man-made – that ... feels very balanced also. It's something we love and we also learn from. It also challenges us to rethink our work in this space because it's very different than, for example, a square wide museum space where we have done several (installations) and we figured it out. This was a complete new challenge for us to work with. We think it's a beautiful match.”
In addition to adapting its method of hanging the pieces in the unusually shaped space, DRIFT also drew on North American wildflowers for the colors of the blooms to help make this version site-specific. Resnikoff adds that the number of flowers, their arrangement and their choreography are all adapted to the setting of the work.
“It's really responding to the environment and to the region,” she says.
At the moment, the region has been bitterly cold, which is abundantly clear right outside the large Quadracci Pavilion windows that offer a panoramic view of the frozen Lake Michigan a few yards away.
It’s the perfect time to lay on the Art Museum floor, gaze up at the blooming “Meadow” and dream of spring.
“The series really tries to bring art into the building, into this space – which is really a gathering space – during the coldest months of the year and activate the space as a place for engagement between people and artwork.
“I really couldn't imagine a better artwork to do that with in January than ‘Meadow.’ We talk a lot about how we're bringing spring a little bit early to Milwaukee, and I think (this) definitely does that.”
There is no admission fee to view “Winter Series: Meadow” at Milwaukee Art Museum, but while you’re there, stop at the desk, buy a ticket and check out the great Robert Longo and “True Story” photography exhibitions.
If you go Thursday night, Jan. 23, you can hear more about “Winter Series: Meadow” and DRIFT from curator Resnikoff and DRIFT expert Colin Fanning in the Lubar Auditorium at 6:15 p.m.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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