I always get excited when I think about seeing art that seems a bit foreign or unfamiliar to me. It forces me to think and experience what the artist wanted express. Not coming from any art background, it’s often just a space of curiosity and mind play for me – which is something I can never turn down. I was excited heard about Aldo Tambellini’s exhibition, even by the title alone. I like the idea of anyone playing with or even posing ideas of a new era in time or a new level of consciousness.
When you walk in, there’s a sign warning you of the the flashing lights. But a small sign in front of the thick, black curtains can’t prepare you for what you’re going to experience when you walk in. At first all the motion from the video projections can make you feel a little dizzy and chaotic. But if you are able to separate that initial shock, you can just see the message. I’d like to believe that the artist is challenging you to think about ourselves in new realms of consciousness that form the connectivity of energies to one another.
The Black Film Series featured in this exhibit are a sequence of seven films that were created between 1965 and 1969. Before shooting on the film, Tambellini treated the film with paint, ink, stencils and chemicals. It’s said that footage from newsreals, broadcast television, along with the abstraction of the Vietnam War were inter-cut into the Black Film Series. Aldo Tambellini’s We Are Primitives of a New Era is an experience. I found myself just sitting there for a while amongst all of the chaos to find all the peace in it. This exhibition will run though October 19 at the James Cohan Gallery on 533 West 26th Street, New York 10001. Visit www.jamescohan.com for more information.