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A rendering of the installation “SIT(UATION),” 2023, by Riley Hooker in collaboration with architect Nick Meehan
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ICA at VCU celebrates five years this spring.
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Navine G. Dossos’ “No Such Organization,” 2018-2019, gouache on paper, 39 by 39 inches, NOME, Berlin (Photograph provided by Van Abbemuseum)
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A rendering of the installation “Between a Book and a Soft Place,” 2023, by Nicole Killian
Yes, you can sit on it.
The yellow tubular objects around the central Royall Forum of the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University are indeed art. And though their meandering form may resemble Play-Doh squeezed out of the “factory” attachment, you can take your ease on them and observe what is bound to be a spectacular scene on Friday, April 21, from 5:30 to 10 p.m. This is the fifth anniversary of the ICA (check out the schedule). The celebration is free and open to the public and includes talks, tours, performance, music, food and all kinds of art.
Now, about those sit-upon-constructs: They are called “SIT(UATION)” and come from the creative combination of New York City artist Riley Hooker and architect Nick Meehan. This piece is also a part of a larger, in-process exhibition, “MURRMUR,” which is an initialization for “Misread Unread Read Re-read Misread Unread Re-read.”
The comparison to Play-Doh regarding “SIT(UATION)” provokes a welcome laugh from ICA Senior Curator Sarah Rifky.
“This also arises from what the ICA wants to do,” she explains cheerfully. “MURRMUR” is about publishing and thinking about reading, where one reads and the architecture surrounding books. “Part of the exciting thing is the capacity allowed us to experiment with ideas. You can start off saying, ‘How can we publish books?’ But you end up producing furniture,” and she allows for appreciative amusement. “Having that kind of freedom in the practice is quite liberating.”
Cultural talk these days makes free and frequent mention of “intersectionality.” The ICA embodies the term and occupies a multilevel niche.
Beginning with its location at the seldom-still confluence of Broad and Belvidere — built on the site of an early 20th-century train connection called Elba Station and catty-corner from a long-vanished rattletrap house where VCUArts founder Theresa Pollak first took art classes — what began in the 1990s as a way to replace the university’s Anderson Gallery, through the effort of the school, community art leaders and patrons, the museum turned into one of the most complicated structures in Virginia, designed by Steven Holl Architects (Holl will be there for a discussion at 6 p.m. on how the building happened).
And then, there’s the mission. The ICA presents museum-caliber works by living artists, without amassing a collection, which makes it “an inside-brackets [museum],” Rifky says.
Executive Director Dominic Willsdon concurs. “In a way, some of our way of thinking about this, in the field,” Willsdon observes, “revolves around the ‘M word,’ museum.”
The word is derived from The Muses of myth, and is meant to conjure the experience of inspiration.
Perhaps the difference between a museum and an institute is that a museum preserves and presents, while an institute produces and presents.
“With each exhibition we do, a lot of the work has been commissioned by us,” Willsdon says. “Sometimes the whole exhibition is commissioned by us, and other times, certain pieces. At least in our interpretation of it, our purpose is not only to show the new, but create the new.”
The ICA then, in part, functions as a catalyst for creation and connection. The creations shown at the ICA come from the visions and hands of artists from the Richmond area, the region and across the world. Some of these works receive exhibition at the ICA for the first time in the United States.
“And that’s not purely for the sake of being first at something,” Willsdon says, “but it’s about how can we give opportunities to artists to work in a different scale or in other ways than they’ve had before. So, we’re bringing something entirely new into the world.”
New as it is, the ICA came along at a time of social and cultural foment, conflict and plague. How it’s sought to reflect the times while also asserting an identity involves partnerships and collaborations. This ranges from the ongoing live performance series “Test Pattern” (also streamed on YouTube), which utilizes the ICA’s pitch-perfect auditorium, to the VPM + ICA Community Media Center, which encourages media training for the recording of podcasts and storytelling. Every fall, the ICA hosts the podcast festival “Resonate.” There are lectures and symposiums. Willsdon, whose past experience includes curating live programming, embarked on a series of talks, “Making Sense of Contemporary Art.”
The building itself is a source of interest, especially to the younger audience. Half of those visiting are under the age of 25, which is in part a function of the ICA’s location. They are a diverse group, and at the openings one sees all kinds of folks. They might at first be intimidated by the angled futurism of the structure, but once inside, the lofty spaces and light prove alluring and sociable. “The architecture is unlike anything else in this historic, brick-built city,” Willsdon says. He recalls a woman, past retirement age, who signed up for dance classes at the ICA. “She said the space made her feel like moving within it.”
The newness of building is part of the attraction as a place of convening. There are few negative historic attachments. The space itself, and what’s inside, is open to interpretation.
For a visitor, the exploration begins outside, as in what’s soaring above you on the ICA’s Belvidere Street facade: the commissioned work by Navine G. Dossos titled “McLean.” The panels of symbols and icons are a response to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a resident of McLean, Virginia. We’ve seen video of Khashoggi walking into a building, but there is nothing of the horror and oblivion that followed. A major concern of Dossos is how governments and technology filled the void caused by his absence. The piece, too, as Rifky sees it, “restates the value of freedom and the privilege that it is.”
If any of this confuses you, there is a kind of docent available for the fifth-anniversary event. This is a sound piece by New York-based podcaster and artist Sharon Mashihi. You can scan a QR code and hear Mashihi reacting to this work and that in the exhibit of abstract work by makers from around the world, “So It Appears.”
“She takes on the role of a person who is not necessarily familiar with contemporary art,” Rifky says. “It’s a 12-minute audio piece, funny, wonderful, about reflections and the hesitations we have when approaching art.”
In his talks, Willsdon finds himself addressing the quality of the “newness” of what’s presented at the ICA.
“It’s not only that this work is new to the audience, but it’s fairly new to us,” he says. “So, part of the spirit of ICA is that we here are also learning about things. Our curators are going into the world, like journalists, and bringing that information back.”
