A Warehouse for beauty
By Anne Tschida
The flapping wings of birds draws you into a side room at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse in Wynwood. You may have a hard time esacping their embrace. Can you hear the sounds of the flapping?
The question comes to mind as you view Japanese-born, London-based Hiraki Sawa's multi-video exhibit, O. The hypnotic rhyths of the birds' wings that reoccur on three large screens are accompanied by speakers and a soundtrack--but it's a mind game. The sound installation that accompany the visuals have nothing to do with birds.
Along with those birds, there is a slow unveiling of images of the Austrailian outback, of those barren rocky outcrops, across one huge screen; on another, flowing like lava, are rippling waves and water. And on a third screen, an empty home with flowered wallpaper is pictured, with the sudden surreal appearance of a silhouette if a white bird flying through it. Hanging along the remaing walls are 10 smaller screens where individual objects are spinning until they drop--objects such as bottles, glasses, cups and so on. The whole thing is dreamlike and addictive, and could take up an entire afternoon.
The experience is at once mesmerizing, calming and disorienting--and may well be the best artistic offering in Miami at the moment.