ART REVIEW: "FREE FALL"
Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery November 1999
VISUAL ARTS by MARY SHERMAN The Boston Harold 7 November 1999
"Free Fall " in to war experience
Vietnam veterans have not always received the respect they deserve. So maybe Ken Hruby ought to be used to it by now. Hruby, an artist and retired Army veteran, this week had one of his art works removed from the exhibition "The Vietnam War Experience/ Veterans Art" at the Fan Pier Courthouse.
Titled "An Instrument for War & Peace: NEA meets NRA," Hruby's piece consists of parts of musical instruments fashioned into the shape of agun. But the piece apparently looked too much like a weapon to be a part of the show - even a show intended as an opportunity to experience the war through the artist's eye. And even though Hruby's piece lacks a trigger.
There is one bright spot in all this lunacy. Hruby had a lot on his mind as his work was being censored, which might have helped to deflect some of his outrage. Hruby was putting together an impressive nd complicated new installation, "Free Fall," at the Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery in Newton. Like the piece that was to be in the Fan Pier show, "Free Fall" draws on Hruby's war experiences - in this case, being a parachuter.
White and orange parachutes hang from the ceiling. Attached to some are such things as a pair of boots and an artificial leg. Video monitors are suspended from others. A pulley system slowly raises some parachutes to the ceiling, then releases them with a loud thud. The resounding noise is jarring, and disrupts the soothing background music by Satie, Beethoven and Mozart.
The installation's visual elements are pleasing. Circles of rice laid on the floor visually balance the orange and white chutes. The video images include engaging footage shot from mid-air. Although they are interspersed with military training tapes, there is nothing horrific or threatening in them. In fact there's a certain beauty, lyricism and gentle rhythm to the editing that makes the imagery enjoyable to watch - until the peacefulness is shattered by the crash of one of the parachutes dropping and the somewhat jarring bobbing of the monitor. Hruby is giving the military a certain aesthetic quality, and letting viewers vicariously participate in a jump.
The effect is not unlike watching a war unfold on the nightly news. Or participating in a battle from the safe distance of computer-guided missiles. On one level, the work can be seen as war as we now know it - something we can all follow and vicariously participate in like armchair quarterbacks watching a football game. On another level, though, it can be viewed as a continuation of Hruby's interest in transforming personal reminiscences into something more universal and participatory. One of the monitors, in fact, continuously records and displays what is going on in the gallery, inserting the viewer directly into the work, the military, the jump and Hruby's memories. The effect, like viewing a battle on TV, is as mesmerizing as it is disarming.