When I was in graduate school in my mid-twenties, overwhelmed by the demands of classes and bewildered by teaching for the first time, I would often distract myself by getting lost in the McDonald Forest, a three-thousand acre stretch of wooded hills owned by Oregon State University.
I could no longer worry about all the work I had to do or my ability to do it well. Instead, I focused intensely on my immediate surroundings, taking note of every tree I passed, every shrub, every fork in the worn-out gravel road. And because I was now alert, I noticed other things, too: the patterns shadows made on the ground, the sound of a woodpecker hammering an old snag, the smell of moss and sap.
This was in , when the Whitney was still located in its old building on Madison and East 75 th , with its stacked Brutalist squares and upside down windows. It had an immersive quality I miss, an ability to make you lose yourself, forget the rest of your life, the moment you walk inside. On this occasion, the immersion was instantaneous and overwhelming.
The three installations were intentionally conceived to overload the senses, to make you abandon any thoughts you carried with you into the space. One piece, called Bang Bang Room , featured what looked like part of a house under construction, except that the walls of the house moved as you stood inside of it, and the doors kept opening and slamming shut on their own. In another, Mad House , a freestanding room had been placed on a mechanical axis attached to a motor that made it spin maniacally.
The third installation, Spinning Room , used a rotating live-feed of viewers projected onto mirrored walls to create a space that both encloses the viewer and extends infinitely in reflection upon reflection. The effect of all three pieces was disorientationβof a sensory kind, even more immediate than getting lost in the woodsβand with it an inevitable letting go into the experience of not knowing quite where you stand. I remember struggling to discover the exit, even though the room was a big square with only one way in and out.
