DC takes on the World

Marc de Puechredon presents work by Raphaele Shirley at the artDC fair in Washington DC.

Artist Raphaele Shirley standing in her installation "Elevation in Time"

Marc de Puechredon with his artist Raphaele Shirley

I took my time walking about the fair, but always found myself back at the New Media wing of the fair. The reason was that at art fairs everyone wants to cover cost. This includes every fair even Portland. So some of the things that get left behind or simplified is video and sound installations. There was such amazing work there I would say out of the three hours I was there, I spent a third of it at the New Media wing. First I went to visit Marc de Puechredon. They’re a wonderful gallery located in Basel Switzerland and the co-organizers of the first off shoot fair for Art Basel Switzerland, Scope Basel, opening the first week of June. They had two lovely pieces they were exhibiting. Elevation in Time is a sound and light installation created by artists Raphaele Shirley. The concept is that the viewer steps into this wonderfully crafted stationary elevator. Once inside the installation senses your presence and bombards you with a series of sound and light experiences. Truly nothing compares to it other than the emotions one might have walking though a James Turrell exhibition. The other striking piece was “Lauberornrennen Im Sommer” , translating to “Downhill Sking in Summer”. With this video, artists Daniel Zimmermann recreates a ski course out of two lanes of 2x 4’s, and using stop motion, soars down the course past cows and through barbed wire fences to beat the record time all of which is covered by famed sports commentators from around the region. There was always a crowd around watching and cheering for the race. Zimmermann has also presented a very large installation for the gallery based on the downhill piece. Marc de Puechredon always has an eye for the more cutting edge artists, and with this fair has really pulled it off. There were so many other great booths such as the fellas of The Daily Constitutional, Derek Coté and John Henry Blatte, Douz and Mille with their wonderful video installation by Angela Bonadies, Powerhouse Projects, and the musings of The Perpetual Art Machine. There is a message I saw here at the artDC fair, If you want the collectors, if you want the attention you really have to raise the bar and make them ravenous for what your city has to offer.