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Daniel Reeves was ambushed in the jungle of Vietnam, had an out-of-body experience, achieved enlightenment through Buddhism and now makes transformative art.
Reeves, a Vietnam veteran, said he was floating 3 feet away from his physical body, and this experience ultimately led to his career as an artist.
“The making of art, for which I later understood as transformative, became very cathartic,” he said.
Reeves now identifies as a Bodhisattva, a Buddhist who has achieved enlightenment. His artwork often includes mandala-shaped objects, such as the constantly swirling patterns projected on glass in the UNM Art Museum. A plush black bench is set directly in front of it, so the viewers can just sit and watch and listen to the sound of Tibetan singing bells playing from a speaker directly above their heads.
The piece, called “Avatamsaka,” is just one of several in the museum’s new exhibit, The Transformative Surface. The exhibit features film and media installments by both faculty members and prominent guest artists.
Reeves said his piece is an artistic rendering of a Buddhist text and the idea of Nirvana. He took an old film promoting the American Dream, “tore it apart” and ran it through many complicated computer programs that distorted the images and boosted the colors.
“I thought to myself ‘This is my cosmic compass, and how do I turn it into a rose or lotus?’” he said. “You can experience it like rain.”
Many of the pieces in the exhibit are interactive and require viewers to physically participate with them. For example, faculty artist Mary Tsionga’s piece includes a small screen that, when touched, prompts an image to appear on a large screen in front of the viewer.
Museum curator and Interim Associate Director Michele Penhall said the exhibit was created as a companion for the International Symposium on Electronic Art held in Albuquerque last week. One of the goals of the exhibition is to demonstrate how artists use surfaces in different ways other than just painting or photography. It shows the history and evolution of video, as well.
“We’ve never done any kind of exhibition like this,” she said. “You don’t have to understand theoretical constructs behind multimedia work; there are some really fun pieces that you can just look at.”
The pieces on display employ technology and art somewhat unconventionally. UNM professor Andrea Polli’s piece includes an image of an abstract waterfall and orange dots that move erratically over it. The orange dots are actually images of particulate matter in the museum that are being measured by a machine called a nephelometer. The more polluted the air is, the more orange dots appear on the screen. The piece is not only interactive, but provides commentary on environmental issues as well.
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Penhall said that organizing and setting up the exhibit was a big challenge because the museum usually shows still works, like sculptures and paintings.
“We’re not like MoMA (NYC’s Museum of Modern Art) that has a bigger budget that goes into collecting this kind of work,” she said. “All these things take different kinds of equipment.”
Penhall said she hopes these pieces attract a younger audience and get more people involved with the art world, even if they’re not artists themselves.
“We do have trouble attracting a younger audience because they think we’re not that interesting or stodgy,” she said. “But this really knocks your socks off.”
The Transformative Surface
UNM Art Museum
Runs through Dec. 15
The UNM Art Museum hosts Meeting of the Minds on Thursdays at noon to discuss works on exhibit and others as well.
