Newcity Art

Visual Art Culture of Chicago and Beyond

Review: Harold Mendez/Museum of Contemporary Art

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by Art Editor
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If minimalist is the intent of Harold Mendez’s MCA 12×12 installation, then minimal should be your expectations. A piece about empty landscapes and desert sounds, the room’s abstract, gleaming gray walls of packing tape become solid grids at close range, creating a perceptual play between immense natural space and the feeling of a caged, urban backyard. This oscillation is nice, but it fails to reveal anything beyond itself without significant intellectual work by the viewer. Under many circumstances the duration of this work would recommend it, but here it yields little satisfaction. The accompanying sound piece “So Long as We Can Say This Is the Worst, This is Not the Worst” was recorded in the Great Basin Desert and though it has been manipulated to effectively capture the loud quiet of such terrain, once again it leaves the viewer wanting more. Mendez clearly edits himself well, but this empty room remains psychologically and symbolically barren. (Rachel Furnari)

Through November 30 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago.

  • haroldm

    Hello Rachel. I would like to share a few thoughts regarding your review of my recent exhibition. In my opinion, a certain amount of intellectual work should be done to experience a work of art. I can respect that my work may not be of interest to you if that’s your position but maybe you didn’t want to work a little harder or experience the work after the club like opening atmosphere at the MCA to understand my project.

    During “First Friday’s” opening reception no one was able to listen to the recording including you as I recall. My email to you about the sound installation clearly stated that an ‘excerpt’ would not give the piece justice since you would be hearing it in “stereo” as opposed to it’s actual “four-channel” set up, leaving you with a loss of the sounds architecture. And since the sound installation is a thirty minute “durational” piece, I’m not sure how you can make a claim about the work after only hearing a five-minute excerpt (which you requested since you couldn’t hear the piece during the opening) and still ask for more. It just seems a bit ironic and dishonest to me. I’m curious to know why you didn’t disclose that information.

    While I’m sure you want to give your readers an accurate synopsis of my work or any other exhibition, it’s upsetting to read misleading information. Hopefully in the future, you’ll actually come back and experience the work under proper conditions and sit with the work instead of stating your opinion for others to read while under an editorial deadline.

    Respectfully,

    Harold Mendez

  • rcfurnari

    Harold,

    Thanks for the response.

    It was indeed difficult to experience your work fully on the night of the MCA opening. However, I think you’ve missed my point. I praise the individual aspects of the installation and the audio–both of which manifest a coherent, elegant intent. I would, under most circumstances (as stated in my review) fervently encourage hard work on the part of a viewer. My
    criticism was leveled at the piece in its entirety, which, in my opinion, did not stand up to the rigorous analysis you seem to require of your audience. For me, such reflection was disappointing, producing a well-worn recognition of infinity’s abyss and the desert as the pseudo-spiritual artistic object par excellence. It was lovely, but in the end it failed to improve upon its material conditions; it remained an empty room.

    I take care in my conclusions and I’m sorry you feel your work has been treated unfairly. Despite your misplaced insinuations, I think I had an adequate experience of it over the course of two separate trips to the MCA. I would never take the time to write about you if I didn’t know you were perfectly capable of putting your money where your mouth is.

    -Rachel