Arts: Student curators bring "Wings" to DUMA

It can safely be said that Orville and Wilbur Wright never heard of video art. Even if such a medium did exist in 1903, it is quite unlikely that it would have been proverbial in the sandy recesses of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. But on Dec. 17 of that very year, the Wright Brothers had a little trick of their own up their sleeves: flight. Icarus' failure, Michelangelo's vision and the penguin's one true ambition. One hundred years later--and we're still smitten. 

The Duke University Museum of Art is celebrating the centennial anniversary of this first victorious flight with its fifth annual student-curated exhibition. "The Power of Wings," organized by seniors Erin Comerford and Jessica Vodofsky, opens today and will show until Jan. 11. Both curators are majoring in Art History and said this show was the perfect opportunity to apply their academic knowledge to a professional environment. While most students were baking on the beach, these two art connoisseurs were scouring the galleries of New York City for pieces that would reflect the concept of flight. After extensive research, they chose to center the show on art as transformed vision. As Vodofsky expressed, "art is all about a detachment from earthly surroundings, and how we relate to that world."

"The Power of Wings" showcases the works of seven artists, all of whom are represented in New York. "The fact that we were students opened up a lot of doors for us, so the gallery owners readily wanted to help", said Comerford. The McKee Gallery, where Vodofsky interned last summer, graciously loaned DUMA two works by the conceptual artist Annette Lemieux. The curators not only had to select the pieces to be displayed, but they also had to learn everything from the legalities of copyright law, loan agreements and installation requirements, to how high the pieces would be mounted and what to write for the wall text.

Enter the DUMA this afternoon, and on the wall behind the staircase will be a billowing 118- by 182-inch sheer panel showing the flight patterns of birds at 4 a.m. There is a faint buzz of flapping, coming from an arena projected on the wall. Upstairs, the first object to stand out is a model of a completely desolate landscape--all to scale. It is a birds-eye view of a wasteland, complete with trucks and a bridge over the troubled waters. The artist, Michael Ashkin, actually formed the river out of a highly toxic substance called Envirotech, that looks exactly like shimmering water. Trash floats in the river and along the banks, visible even from the sky.

Other important pieces to The Power of Wings are an etching by Vija Celmins, who was recently shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a series of photographs by Annette Lemiuex called "A Kind of Flight." "As a conceptual artist, her ideas dictate what the art will be", said Vodofsky. "These are film stills from a French film that are reflected from the center--just like expanding wings."

The most difficult piece to acquire was the video art work by Italian artist Grazia Toderi. Although the artist was represented in New York, the DVD had to be sent from Milan. Since Italian DVDs cannot be played on American electronics, it was then necessary to find an elusive European DVD player. Fortunately, the result is worth all the effort. Projected on the wall is a looped film short that follows the view of a concert from the sky, twisting the viewer's orientation on its head. "This is all about the sensory implications of flight", explained Comerford. "The plane becomes an instrument for feeling the world differently."

Indeed. Maybe video art would not have been so foreign to the Wright Brother's that rainy day in the Outer Banks.

The Power of Wings is on display from November 6th through January 11th, 2004. This afternoon is the opening reception, beginning at 5:30 p.m. It includes a gallery talk by the student curators.