Aurora, the biennial outdoor art installation exhibition featuring light, video, and sound-based works is, perhaps, the most appealing and intriguing event in Dallas’ Arts District. Open to the public, it engulfs Flora, an otherwise empty street devoid of much of anything, and turns it into an illuminated spectacle that makes urban life a reality in a city where businesses and the city still fight over parking. This year, an off year for the event, Aurora held a trimmed-down version of itself to drum up interest for next year’s full-fledged ordeal. Called Prelude, the exhibition showcased the work of 11 local and international artists.
Strewn across the campus of the AT&T Performing Arts Center as well as the Meyerson Symphony Center next door, the works welcomed viewers to engage and interact with them on a personal level. Walking into the event from Pearl Street, two large video installations were projected onto the Meyerson. The first visible one, shown on what could be considered a buttress of sorts, was Quayola’s Matter, a video based on a geometric time-based digital sculpture showcasing Rodin’s The Thinker. The video was digitally reproduced using 3D animation software that focuses on sections of the notable sculpture, devolving into triangular instances and eventually returning to its recognizable form. The other work projected on the Meyerson, Quayola’s Pleasant Places, wasn’t as easy to see at first. It engulfed the top portion of the building with video scenes of 17th century Flemish landscape prints.
On the ground level, visitors were greeted with more approachable works. Tucked into what used to be the Pearl Cup coffee shop’s building was Dallas artist Tramaine Townsend’s INC.. His video piece, which encompassed much of the interior, examined close-up the seemingly choreographed movement of ferrofluid, a highly magnetic liquid that warps, shifts, and dances when exposed to a magnetic field. Visitors sat along the interior glass wall, transfixed, throughout much of the video.
Outside that space is where the majority of the art awaited visitors. Near the grounds of the Meyerson sat a work, titled Light Wave, by teamVOID. The piece consists of a large black board featuring numerous LEDs controlled by a motor that are constantly shifting like, well, waves. The work allows for 20 different patterns, looping randomly.
Near that was Shilpa Gupta’s Deep Below, The Sky Flows Under Our Feet. Gupta’s piece was easily the most interactive one at Prelude. It invited onlookers to lie beneath and look up at it. The work, comprised of a ring with neon light bulbs spelling out the title, was suspended roughly 12 feet up. The intent of the piece, not unlike James Turrell’s skyspaces, is to force viewers to acknowledge the sky above as an element of the piece.
Perhaps, though, the most alluring piece at the exhibition was Herman Kolgen’s Unwind. Suspended over the Reflecting Pool in front of the ATTPAC, the pulsating, organ-like bag, complete with veins and arteries, featured six internal lights that mimicked what can be considered a breathing pattern. Unwind, though not as interactive as Gupta’s aforementioned piece, drew in numerous children and adults. The children were especially drawn to and the water beneath, because of course. I also enjoyed traipsing through the pool to get a closer look. It’s not hard to say that Kolgen’s piece was the anchor to Prelude. It was centrally located, large, and drew in visitors like moths to a flame.
And yet, while the art was superb, it wasn’t the main attraction that the event billed it to be. It drew in the crowd, but was a tertiary element of the whole event. The pieces were baubles, if you will. Baubles in Dallas’ grandest Bauble district. Along Flora and throughout the event there were at least five bars. In front of Booker T. Washington High School and its across-the street-neighbor, the Dallas City Performance Hall, were two rows of food trucks. Visitors had concessions thrust at them from all sides as if it were the State Fair of Texas. It’s less an art exhibition and more a party.
That’s not to say it’s a bad thing. People were actively engaging with the art. However, that engagement was more in a selfie or Instagram-driven manner rather than one of contemplation. There was even a station, with a rather long line, that encouraged such ventures. Next to that, including another long line, was a virtual reality booth. While, again, this is fine, it distracts completely from what Aurora claims it’s supposed to be about. Events on this scale will undoubtedly devolve to our own social media habits. That’s a given, and unavoidable in 2016. It’s up to the event to be more than that, though. Prelude wasn’t.
The most egregious, and maybe the most Old Dallas thing of all, was inside the ATTPAC, where visitors were asked to pay $55 to access one — just one — of the works in the exhibition, Alicia Eggert and Safwat Saleem’s The Future. I didn’t go in. If you did pay the cover, however, you were rewarded three drink tickets, similar to a tourist trap strip club on the Las Vegas Strip. Who cares about the art when there are free drinks and the exclusivity of pretending to be VIP? The ATTPAC needs some extra money these days, so maybe the people buying into the gimmick are helping out in the long run.
One thing is certain. Dallas is hungry for an event like Aurora. Seeing the Arts District activated in this way is something we can all be proud of. The city needs more urbanism and inclusivity and Aurora, or in this case Prelude, is a great vehicle for just that. Yet, the dogmatic practices that have always encased cultural consumption in the city persist. Hopefully, the event can find its identity before next year’s exhibition. Otherwise it will remain a party, with people intent on only projecting themselves across social media through a thin veneer of art appreciation.
