Cildo Meireles at Capp Street Project - San Francisco, California - Review of Exhibitions

Art in America, Feb, 1995 by Gay Morris

Cildo Meireles continues an important line of Brazilian Conceptual art, following in the footsteps of such seminal figures as Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica. His work, like theirs, focuses on the experience of the viewer/participant rather than on the authoritarian voice of the artist/creator. Meireles's two installations at Capp Street Project were typical in this sense, both being environments in which the viewer took an active part.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1948, Meireles began making Conceptual art when he was still a teenager. He has long been concerned with space, time and perception. His art became political in 1970 when he printed messages against the repressive Brazilian government on recyclable Coca-Cola bottles and on paper money. Volatile, one of the works at Capp Street, was a subtle manifestation of his politically inspired art, while the other, Entrevendo, stressed the more perceptual aspect of his work.

Entrevendo, which means "seeing between," was a tunnel approximately 7 feet in diameter and 14 feet long, made of strips of rough wood. At one end was a large industrial fan which set up a light breeze within the structure. The first time I visited the show I was given a small piece of ice in an "s" shape to melt in my mouth while I stood in the open end of the tunnel. According to gallery notes, the ice was modeled on the shapes of the air currents created by the fan. My activity in concert with the work was supposed to create a "synesthetic" experience, "a subjective sensation one feels which is other than the sense being stimulated. . . . Meireles temporarily provides a material form and a taste associated with this air flow." Even though I read the printed information before entering the tunnel, my synesthetic experience was extremely limited. The next time I went to the gallery, I neglected to ask for ice and wasn't offered any. It's hard to imagine the reaction of a person who had not picked up the gallery notes and therefore did not know to ask for the object that would complete the experiential process.

Volatile had none of the problems of Entrevendo. It consisted of a dark room, the floor of which was covered with about a foot of talc. At the far end of the room was a lighted candle. A strange scent, which was said to be simulated gas, rounded out the experience. Although created with a minimum of materials, the darkly claustrophobic atmosphere of the room was horrible, with its disturbing odor, flickering light and thick, almost gluey talc. This was a spot where nothing good could happen. Perhaps it was a memorial to a terrible event, perhaps it was simply meant to conjure up the ghastly things that can happen in certain rooms in certain places in the world. Whatever the precise intent, one didn't linger, although the memory of Volatile certainly will.