20th Century Modern Genius by Tommy Petroskey

20^th Century Modern Genius by Tommy Petroskey

            At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts the Linde Family wing of contemporary art has a fantastic collection.  However one piece stuck out the most.  Josiah McElheny is a contemporary artist who is most commonly known for his blown glass sculptures.  His piece titled Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism was fantastically futuristic and mesmerizing to look at.  The piece uses chromed glass blown effigies displayed in a casing of one-way mirrors.  The mirrors, all facing toward each other, allows us not only to see into the casing at the captivating glass sculptures but also creates an infinitely receding reflecting of the piece.  This gives the art an appearance that no matter what angle you look at the glass sculptures will continue in a line forever in every direction. 

I found this specific piece fascinating because of the creativity and simplicity it expresses.  Most contemporary art is pushing for their own attempt to have a unique meaning and to be different from all the rest.  However what makes this piece different from all the others in the exhibit was its lack of meaning and complexity.  Don’t get me wrong this piece was noting short of extraordinary and it was nothing like I have ever seen before, but the depth in significance McElheny was portraying was practically non-existent. 

Finally I believe the staging of the actual work of art I believe was substantial in different ways.  The actual piece was displayed within a large reflective cube.  The contrast of the mirrors on the inside of the artwork to the mirrors on the outside display was interesting to me.  I think that McElheny chose to do this because it gave the affect of the art inside the case more of an important denotation.  I look forward to seeing more works of McElheny because this piece impresses me plenty.  The futuristic appearance certainly gave this piece a lot of style and I give McElheny a great deal of credit for the design.                    

MFA Boston, reviewed by Rebecca Wnuk

A Mirror In Which We Cannot See Ourselves 
By Rebecca Wnuk

            Imagine a world of shape without shadow- a world where reflective forms inhabit a reflective space with reflective walls surrounding that space. This idea is what inspired Josiah McElheny to create Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism, a sculpture on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Created in 2007, the piece is a large metallic cube with a rectangular window on each side. A look into one of the windows reveals an extraordinary optical illusion: various vessels made of hand-blown mirrored glass that seem to recede back into an endless void. The cube is placed in the center of the gallery, allowing viewers to walk around it and observe all four sides. Each side is over seven feet long, and the size of the piece as well as its silvery gleam makes it an immediate attention-grabber.

            The most striking part of the sculpture is the fact that everything inside the windows is made of mirrors, yet when peering into the glass, one cannot see their own reflection. This effect creates an air of otherworldliness- a distinction between what's outside the cube and what's inside the cube. To add to this, the windows' transparent glass acts as a barrier, separating the real world from the perfectionist utopia of carefully positioned, seemingly infinite pristine vases. The flawlessness of the space is almost unbelievable; the urge arises to break the glass barrier and reach through to touch one of the vases just to make sure it's real and tangible.

            McElheny plays with depth perception, using optical trickery to fool the eye. Even though the cube is only 343 feet in volume, the vases, boxes and bottles seem to stretch on for miles, disappearing into a dark abyss. This is both intriguing and strangely unsettling: on one hand, viewers feel a wondrous curiosity about how he accomplished this aesthetic. On the other, disconcerting feelings develop when viewers realize that a visual artist created a piece that fools the eyes- the very instruments used to observe visual art.

            Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism is a beauty with a sharp edge. Equally compelling and disquieting, it incites more questions than it gives answers. When can't our own senses be trusted? What are the parallels between the alien environment inside the cube and our own environment outside? What is it about all of the mirrors that produces a sensation of slight discomfort? While it is not guaranteed that these points of curiosity will be answered by a trip to the MFA, it is guaranteed that McElheny's sculpture will leave you thinking. And, in this case, that alone is enough.