The NSU Art Museum has opened its newest exhibit, “Lemme Walk Across the Room,” by New York-based artist Eric Mack. The exhibit is a large-scale installation, featuring hand-stained textiles displayed throughout the expanse of the second floor of the museum.
The large textiles are draped, hung and mounted carefully across the floor, transforming it into a space acknowledging the history of abstract expressionist painting. The use of different elements of fashion and music allow the viewers to have a multisensory experience with the exhibit.
Bonnie Clearwater, chief curator of the NSU Art Museum, had already decided that she wanted to do this show at the museum before even seeing its initial opening in New York. Knowing Mack personally and having worked with him previously, Clearwater was interested in how he pushes the dialogue of past artists forward.
“This installation is meant to be performative for the viewer. The title, ‘Lemme Walk Across the Room’ makes that clear. The viewer is meant to experience the free-floating paintings that come off the wall and create a dynamic barrier, forcing the viewer to take a different route when walking across the room. It becomes a performance for the viewer trying to navigate the space while simultaneously becoming a metaphor for obstacles that get in our way and how we need to be creative in overcoming these obstacles,” she said.
Clearwater drew comparisons between the two exhibits currently on display in the museum, “Lemme Walk Across the Room” and ”The World of Anna Sui.”
“By coincidence, this exhibit was up at the same time as the Anna Sui exhibit, which focuses on fashion. Sui has sections featuring mood boards that show a bit of her inspiration and works in progress, and then upstairs with Eric Mack’s work, he too has elements of fashion and a bit of a mood board, showing the overlap in their influences. You can tell that Mack draws inspiration from both fashion and art history. In part of the exhibit, you’ll see a few shirts hanging up alongside a cowboy hat, drawing parallels with the Americana portion of Sui’s exhibit downstairs,” she explained.
As for the meaning and purpose of this exhibit, Clearwater wants every visitor to craft their own. Visitors make their own decisions on how to move across the room and interpret each space. Because of this, text and plaques explaining the exhibit were kept to a minimum.
Clearwater emphasized that NSU students can sign up for their free art museum membership on the museum’s website and to be sure to visit their latest exhibit, which opened April 4, titled “Ike Ude: Select Portraits.”
