#7 Iconoclash: Night of Awe Dance Party, 2007Melissa Shiff – Toronto, Ontario
Multimedia installation
- When Moses descends the mountain to find his people dancing around the golden calf, the party’s over. In contrast to Judaism, Hindus worship the cow as holy. This tension between what is held sacred in religious cultures is the crux of Iconoclash. This installation pairs iconic movie scenes with a multicultural music mix to create an interactive dance party. The audience is superimposed into these scenes via technology, focusing reflection on issues of visual representation.
This installation was by far the most fun because of its level of audience interactivity. Iconoclash consisted of a screen projecting religious iconography and clips of movies, with pictures of live audience members dancing at the bottom of the screen. Near by, a wooden stage with audience members danced to remixed Hindi music and even Madonna (the traditional mixed with the contemporary), where they could view themselves being filmed and placed on the screen in front of them. Aside from
audience members and pictures of icons being projected, the occasional phrase would be on screen as well, such as “Your God is my pop culture”, as Homer from the Simpsons would appear as Moses and then a clip from the 10 commandments.
This installation was by far the most fun because of its level of audience interactivity. Iconoclash consisted of a screen projecting religious iconography and clips of movies, with pictures of live audience members dancing at the bottom of the screen. Near by, a wooden stage with audience members danced to remixed Hindi music and even Madonna (the traditional mixed with the contemporary), where they could view themselves being filmed and placed on the screen in front of them. Aside from
audience members and pictures of icons being projected, the occasional phrase would be on screen as well, such as “Your God is my pop culture”, as Homer from the Simpsons would appear as Moses and then a clip from the 10 commandments. Essentially the title of the installation, Iconoclash is self-explanatory, as random images of religion from various cultures are shown in a “clash” at once, often times contradicting each other. Once again, the artist controversial display of many religions and how the complexity of each may lead to a cultural confusion was the focus here. Audience members of different ethnicities joined together on stage and danced much like the various images of ethnicities and religions joined together on screen, perhaps representing our nation’s identity (?).
2 comments:
It was fun to dance and see yourself amongst the various regiliuos symbols. However, I think amongst all the music and rush to dance and see yourself on the screen, people could have forgotten the whole purpose of the exhibit...cause to be frank i kind of did. Maybe its just me. I found it more entertaining than informative.
Maybe that was the artist's intention? Maybe to showcase the issues but it shows how yet, despite these cultural clashes, no one really pays attention to them? Not that the clashing of religion isn't important to us, just that we have bigger things to worry about in our lives (ie. War, Global Warmimg)?
But it's interesting, maybe the artist was just provoking the idea to us in a fun way, otherwise how else would viewers get interested in the piece? I thought it was pretty cool.
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