San Jose Museum of Art

I walked up close to the wall hoping to find a written blurb on the odd, wire-crazy piece displayed on three large tables that I was having trouble interpreting. I began to read the museum’s guidance as to what I was actually viewing when I began to read something about small, mechanical dispensers and propaganda leaflets. I looked back at the installation and wasn’t able to see this at all, thinking I must not be as artistically sophisticated for the museum as I needed to be, when I looked up. Plastic dispensers. I was reading the description of the wrong piece—a piece I did not even know existed! Mounted on two pedestals more than five feet above my head were these two, small, clear “machines” that had pamphlets stuck in them. Szyhalski’s work entitled “If/Then” was one of the most interesting pieces I viewed at the San Jose Museum of Art on Sunday, May 18 because of its interactivity with the viewer and its harsh and deliberate social commentary.

“If/Then” was a work of art that used these plastic “machines” to dispense the propaganda leaflets periodically throughout the day, with the leaflet then floating down through the museum space to the ground. The most interesting part of the piece was the line I read at the bottom of the plaque on the wall that stated the museum goers could pick up the leaflets and keep them at their own will. A leaflet never dropped while I attended the museum, but I found this to be such an interesting and effective idea. A piece that I didn’t even know existed, as if it was almost hiding up above me near the ceiling, could disseminate such a strong message with just a museum attendee wondering what that little piece of paper was doing on the ground. With just two small little plastic boxes and a simple mechanical structure, messages and themes of the US and Coalition Forces in the Gulf War and Iraq were produced. I stumbled upon this piece on accident, as was its intention, for propaganda messages try to hide from us, and realizations of reality come in odd and subtle ways like “If/Then” did for me. I thought the piece’s subtlety made it that much more impacting when I discovered it.

There were two more pieces of art that I found efficacious and powerful for the same reasons as “If/Then”—one for its interactivity with the viewer and one for its subtle social message that becomes revealed with further understanding. “Love Disorder” by Bruce Charlesworth was a piece I again stumbled on by walking into a room and experiencing a large projected video character who was talking “to” me. The character was speaking in short phrases, some of which displayed anger, sadness, affection, and other emotions. However, as I walked closer, the character began to say things regarding my proximity to him and how I was getting too close. As I began to back away, he would either tell me to go on and leave, or to come back. He was aware of my motion throughout the space! The fact that I could “interact” with this video character made the piece so potent as I began to become connected to this person due to his display of intense emotions. Not only was this piece literally “in your face,” but its idea was as well as I began to see the effectiveness of interactivity to connect the viewer to the piece and involve you in such a way that you would never expect. This piece literally played with my emotions, as I believe would be the case if I were to stumble upon a propaganda pamphlet on the floor of the museum!

“Tantalum Memorial” by Harwood, Wright, and Yokokoji used another technique to “touch me.” It produced a subtle, but overpowering social message through use of a simple, mechanical idea much like “If/Then.” It showed a series of Strowger switches that are the inner-workings of phones. Every so often, this “sculpture” would move and click and display the relay of messages behind phone communication. Upon reading its description, I was curious as to why this was a “memorial,” and discovered that the metal tantalum essential for mobile phones has caused many deaths in the Congo due to wars over the mining of this material. I would never imagine the clicking of these metal machines was used to reveal the Congolese strife and warfare, and in this way it hit me hard upon realization. With this message, I began to think of the triviality of our obsession with cell phones and the complete unawareness of the destruction occurring behind the workings of the cell phone. In addition, I began to think about the concept of our ability for constant communication when perhaps the Congolese people have no way of communicating their unknown and shocking situation. These three works of art used different, but completely effective, techniques to reach the viewer and promote their messages.