ART-PRESENTATION: Doug Wheeler-PSAD Synthetic Desert III

Doug Wheeler, PSAD Synthetic Desert III (Detail), 1971, Ink on paper, 61.1 x 91.4 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum-New York, Panza Collection, Gift, 1991, © Doug WheelerA poet of light, Doug Wheeler creates atmospheres of a rare sensuality. He challenges our perception of depth and volume, even while our bodies, clothed in light, dissolve in the white space that has grown infinite. It is a question then of exploring the very substance of light and of provoking unprecedented sensorial perceptions.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archive

Since the ‘60sDoug Wheeler has been unhinging our senses and guiding us to inhabit moments of liminality, instants of suspension in pure light. His spaces appeal not only to the retina but also to the body as a whole, and thus invite us to an approach both initiatory and meditative. Produced in close collaboration with Doug Wheeler the installation “PSAD Synthetic Desert III”, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York is developed from drawings executed in 1971 and is on view in the museum’s Tower Level 7. In addition to the architectural modification of an existing room to achieve an optical impression of infinite space, which is characteristic of Wheeler’s work of the period the installation is also a semi-anaechoic chamber: a space designed to suppress all but the lowest levels of ambient sound.  The artist’s concept of “PSAD Synthetic Desert III”, is partly drawn from psychological and neurophysiological experiments in sensory deprivation that date back to the mid-20th Century. Wheeler also compares the impact of the work to his own experience of the Desert Southwest, where near-silent conditions profoundly influence the visual sensation of space. For the Guggenheim installation that is being created more than 40 years after the work’s conception, the artist’s ambition is to produce a hermetic environment based on a radical reduction of optical and acoustical sensation. Doug Wheeler grew up in the Arizona desert. The day-to-day relation with the open sky and the infinite solitude has left an imprint on the man and his works: “There are places you can go where you almost feel like you are the only living thing, and you become conscious of yourself in ways normally you’re not”. To recreate these ambivalent feelings in an exhibition space is one of the challenges taken up by the artist. This explains the precision of his sketches, the technical perfection demanded by their physical realization, the utilization of often very complex technological elements, and the in-situ character of his works. All these elements define the context within which the work appears and they help to neutralize the existing architecture in order to prevent any visual interference.

Info: Organizers: Jeffrey Weiss, Francesca Esmay and Melanie Taylor, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, Duration: 24/3-2/8/17, Days & Hours: Mon, Wed-Fri & Sun 10:00-17:45, Sat 10:00-19:45, www.guggenheim.org

Doug Wheeler, PSAD Synthetic Desert III, 1971, Ink on paper, 61.1 x 91.4 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum-New York, Panza Collection, Gift, 1991, © Doug Wheeler
Doug Wheeler, PSAD Synthetic Desert III, 1971, Ink on paper, 61.1 x 91.4 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum-New York, Panza Collection, Gift, 1991, © Doug Wheeler