If you have lived in Grand Rapids and ventured about as much as I have, then you know there are many wonderful vantage points from which to experience the city during summer. I remember the first time I dined at Cygnus in the Amway Grand Hotel at night and saw the lights shooting out in all directions. Once, while on a ride up to Lookout Park in the Belknap Hill neighborhood, I was able to experience a stunning sunset as I listened to Rachmaninoff: Symphony No 2on my Sony cassette Walkman.
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nBut other favorite views are not driven so much by their height but by the perspectives they enable on our journey. I think of the bending of a roadway, like many of the highways that usher tourists, commuters, and new residents to the city. I think of biking south on Grandville Avenue where, just before the curve to the west (and to a wonderful baker just steps beyond), there’s a wonderful view of old storefronts.
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I even like that some unique views of our city have been carefully created, from our art centers in the city from UICA to the Public Museum to even my own studio in the historic Tanglefoot Building. And if you live long enough, you are able to watch these views of our city shift in many ways – some for the better and others with a head-scratching curiosity, like the chimpanzees I recently observed at the John Ball Zoo.
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nI experienced another view this spring. While observing the 360-degree projection art piece In The Air by T. J. Wilcox (on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art until August 30, 2015) at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, I became nostalgic for the wanderlust that only a city in summer can provide.
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nIn The Air rises up like a cloud as you approach it. This time-lapse view, recorded from atop the artist’s studio space in New York City, offers a rare view of the city over the course of a 24-hour day. Within the unique video presentation are a few of the artist’s favorite views of New York, from the vision of the trans-Atlantic Zeppelin docking high atop the Empire State Building to Andy Warhol’s silver balloon sculptures.
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To enter In The Air, a giant 35 feet in diameter and 7-foot-high world suspended in the middle of the gallery, nearly everyone will have to slightly bend over to reach the center. (It is also interesting to note that children can freely move back and forth barrier-free.)
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nEveryone I observed on my afternoon at the museum had a silent but definite nonverbal different perspective to share about the work. Some lingered for the entire cycle standing in silence as the views gently shifted like the hypnotic spell cast by a summer breeze in a tree, others raced in, snapped a photo with their phones, and then raced off to the next selfie photo op. Like New York, our city is what it is.The attraction of Grand Rapids is that we are still a place where people feel they can create an impact or produce a new design upon a grid that was built long before any of us were even here on this planet. What stood out to me is that In The Air offers us a moment to think about our own city and our role in it. So why am I, a person who is very vocal about the trap of nostalgia, taking us down such a nostalgic path?
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nThe answer is simple and complicated at the same time. Apparently Woody Harrelson once said his philosophy of living was based upon the knowledge that once we begin to look at our lives in terms of how many summers we have left on this planet, we can begin to truly appreciate living.
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nComing from a man whom many equate with Los Angeles – a place of endless summer – it is easy to write this off as just glib press chatter. But he is correct: only once we understand that time is fleeting are we able to take our vantage points in time seriously.
