Hirshhorn - Suprasensorial

The Hirshhorn’s Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space, on display from Feb-Aug 2012, is meant to “create enveloping optical effects that overwhelm and transform sensory experience.” By developing large-scale, multimedia constructions of light, color, and space, these artists actively engaged viewers in a physical process of exploring the possibilities of visual and spatial perceptions, forging new object-viewer relationships.
Suprasensorial may not have been created with kids in mind, but all of the displays are interactive in some way and can be appreciated on several levels, including from a child’s perspective. The artwork is intended to immerse viewers, so they can experience light and space in new ways.
The display that the kids liked the most was “Blue Penetrable BBL.”  It was a cluster of hundred of blue nylon strings hanging from a large rectangular frame ~ 10’x30’.   You walk through them, feeling the strings swarm around you and making the open space just beyond seem to disappear. The kids wandered through it 20 times or more, interrupting the relative quite of the museum with squeals of delight.
 
We didn’t get pics of much of the rest of the exhibition, except the outside of one other “Chromosaturation.”  Inside the room is divided into three areas lit by different colors, creating an illusion of seamless space, making you feel enveloped in ethereal color. Maliah and her bunny liked to experience this piece of art from the outside.