Anywhere Else

Robin Rice on Visual Art

by Robin Rice

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Published: Feb 9, 2010

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSIO

If I had my druthers as a patient, I'd choose a cozier building than Rafael Viñoly's enormous new Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. Alas, cozy is not the direction in which the Kafka-esque machine of contemporary medicine is moving.

Despite the center's vast atrium with skylights 100 feet overhead and nifty futuristic elevators to admire, I would rather have been almost anywhere else in Philadelphia. Which is why the Perelman's sculpture exhibit, "Interplay," intrigued me not as an art lover, but as a patient. It made me wonder: Can art make you feel well when you feel sick? Or make you cheerful and relaxed when you are miserable and anxious?

No! But thoughtful, well-chosen art is way better than no art. Curator Marsha Moss considered qualities appropriate to an audience of patients and medical staff. She looked for "a sense of humanity," partly conveyed through the work's human scale — most pieces are 6 to 8 feet tall.

The circular "handle" of a giant basket-like form of oak and copper wire, Cradle (pictured), frames a view of an interior entrance. Sculptor Fritz Dietel conceived this piece, the only one especially commissioned for the show. Rounded minimal shapes in this and Jun Kaneko's brightly glazed ceramic Dangos drew my attention; downstairs, a funky orange assemblage by Warren Muller clusters around a lighted triskelion of push broom heads. Robert Roesch's black angular metal fan on a pierced base and Donald Lipski's tilted circle of milk bottles unite the organic with the geometric.

This show ends soon, but seven pieces will be held over for the second of a total of three shows. They'll function as an installation audition, leading to the medical center's acquisition of a permanent sculpture collection. I can't wait to see a gorgeous new piece by Brower Hatcher. On second thought, I'd still rather be anywhere else in Philadelphia.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Interplay: Art, Audience, Architecture Through Feb. 26, Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, 3400 Civic Center Blvd., upenn.edu

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