On: Particle Chamber by Leo Villareal
The image of space, kinetically flowing around one in ebbs and flows, totally engulfing the visual senses. Leo Villareal’s Particle Chamber captures an ethereal sense of floating. It’s use of Projection Mapping extends the ability of a 2D Work well beyond the classical boundaries, exposing the viewer to a sense of depth and space wrapped up in a quietly surreal experience.
Much of the work resembles magic. To enter, one opens a door and follows down a dark hallway, with muffled sounds of almost-wind caressing the ears. It is an entrance typical of modern exhibits. From the outside world, the viewer sheds a bit of their preconceptions in the dark hallway, filled with curiosity of the exhibit on the other side. It provides a sense of anticipation and curiosity, in some cases a sense of dread in case what is on the other side is horrifying or jarring. In the case of Particle Chamber, the anticipation is needed. From the darker hallway one is brought into the beating heart of exhibit. It truly is engulfing, experiential, and moving. The millions of little projected particles resemble waves of dust flowing in the breeze. If one is not immediately captivated by the show, perhaps they are too conditioned to expect excitement and gushingly specific works. If that is the case, this exhibit should not be for them. It is an exhibit constructed to be lingered upon, to come back to. In my mind I travel back to it sometimes still after leaving it, like a distant abstract memory. It is in itself a distant abstract memory. There are no clear defining shapes within the movement. Besides the little dots nothing jumps out as recognizable. Nothing points to a specific object or critique, and I love that. It is simple. It is absolutely simple.
And yet it is complex. This goes well beyond traditional paints and materials, lest the viewer forget that this experience is put on the by the meticulous pairing of multiple projectors overlapping exactly across multiple walls to seamlessly create an artistic surface. It is a mastery of an entirely new textile. For centuries painters have utilized the canvas and brushstrokes to reflect, manipulate, and bounce back light in ways that move and alter perceptions. The art has been mastered and reflected upon and mastered again time and time over. For the impressionist Monet it became a tool to paint the space around objects, the way the air moved and colored everything else. He was an artist obsessed with mastering paint as a tool to convey kinetic spaces. Villareal innovates on this. The Particle Chamber removes any sense of object and liberates the particles of the air to move freely, openly, languidly across the walls of the darkened room. It is as if the flowing streams of air from Monet’s paintings of the Siene had been liberated to play in front of the viewers eyes.
The lack of color is all the more powerful. In monotones there is clarity of the work. A black background and white little dots do not encourage the viewer to dig too closely, or hyper analyze any microcosm of the exhibit. To do so would be a sad mistake when it is so experiential. Particle Chamber needs to be taken in as a whole, viewed almost while losing focus in one’s eyes. Staring blankly at the walls, mind lost in the streams of consciousness the flowing images take it.
If there is a word of advice, it is to view this piece when there are as few people as possible. Preferably the viewer can sit alone in the room, feeling the space and the motion till their mind wanders and explores, guided by the piece’s undulating flows. Walking in and walking out cheapens the depth Villareal has engrained into the exhibit. It is by being still that Particle Chamber’s motion really works it’s best magic.