Terry Berlier: Erased Loop Random Walk

 

Upon viewing Terry Berlier’s exhibition, Erased Loop Random Walk, at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, one might feel they are visiting the San Francisco Exploratorium. This comes as no surprise to those who are familiar with her work, but for those of you who are not, Terry Berlier, an interdisciplinary artist, works primarily with sculpture and expanded media. Her work is rooted in experimentation, risk taking, and problem solving and often incorporates kinetic features, and interactive and/or sound based elements with some requiring the participation of the audience. Multiple themes arise in her works which are derived from her experiences at places such as the Laboratory for Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona and the Recology Waste Center in San Francisco. Her work, as a result of her diverse background, offers an intriguing and audibly engaging demonstration, with a twist of irony and humor, of our ongoing relationship with the natural world and the consequences of our industrial and technological interventions.

            Berlier’s exhibition which was previously on view in the quaint gallery of the San Jose ICA, displayed 15 of her most recent works of art. The room being walled off into separate sections allowed for each work to be viewed either individually or as a whole with other relating works based on sound, lighting, or a complimentary piece. For example, Berlier’s, Core Sampling (Tick Tock) and its companion pieces were all displayed in the same room and took up about half of the gallery space. The choice to display them together and in such a large space was wise, although I felt the piece was quite lacking in comparison to her other works. The pieces were expansive and colorfully intriguing and the idea of them being able to read and produce sound like a record player was well thought out, but the most engaging piece was Core Sampling, itself, and it seemed to fall flat in comparison to some of her other pieces. Luckily for her, these pieces were some of the first few on display and lead up quite nicely to other more engaging works of hers.

Center: Terry Berlier, Core Sampling Prints (This Land is Your Land), 2013 Left/right: Terry Berlier, The Not So Solid Earth (Pay Dirt), 2013

Terry Berlier, Core Sampling (Tick Tock), 2009

            Almost all of Berlier’s pieces, with projections, sounds, and interaction, leave you with the feeling that you have just stepped into the San Francisco Exploratorium and that is rightfully so, considering that Berlier  has held residency at the Exploratorium and has had the opportunity to collaborate with both scientists and artists in the past. Sound is obviously an important element in her work as it is present in almost all of her pieces. Two pieces that really stood out were Where the Beginning Meets the End and When Comes the Sun. The latter marked the beginning of the end of the exhibit and so started the more engaging pieces of Berlier’s work. It was a response to the 24 hours of daylight that she encountered during the summer months of a 2012 residency in Norway. Incorporating guitar strings and tuners, piano pegs, a motor, solar panels, and wood, When Comes the Sun, plays an acoustic version of The Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun.” With a little help from the solar panels, the tempo of the tune varies depending on the strength of the sunlight. In a nod to the ironic humor embedded in the work, Berlier thought it was hilarious that the solar instrument played a song about itself.

Terry Berlier, When Comes the Sun, 2012

In Where the Beginning Meets the End, viewers are invited to sit down and play this musical sculpture, comprised entirely of materials that Berlier scavenged from the Recology Center in San Francisco, including a working iBook computer, upright piano parts, and a Dell computer keyboard micro-controller. She has transformed a traditionally soloist instrument into a circular tabletop of piano keys inviting multiple players to explore the collaborative possibilities. Unlike a conventional piano, where wires and keys are perfectly aligned inside, Berlier’s piano, consists of clusters of wires exposed in the center, while still allowing for this complex piece to work; it would entertain anyone for hours.

Terry Berlier, Where the Beginning Meets the End, 2013

            Another important element in Berlier’s work is her obvious concern for the environment. In Ekman Transport (Plastic Ocean), a floor-mounted sculpture about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Berlier displays the fruits of her labor of rummaging through material at San Francisco’s recycling facility. She combines mundane everyday objects like Barbie dolls, water bottles and food packaging to create a piece that uses blue concrete to mimic the waves of the ocean. As you walk around the large sculpture the identity of the objects become clear as well as the idea of the garbage patch, and our environmental problems that Berlier so successfully makes the audience aware of.

 

Terry Berlier, Ekman Transport (Plastic Ocean), 2013

             In her piece Ambassadors of Time, Berlier’s tiny handmade saw reflects the enduring power of the majestic Redwood tree.  The sculpture was inspired by a quote from John Steinbeck, in which he states that Redwood trees, “are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.” Even with man’s intervention, Redwoods still survive and that idea is very much so present in her piece with the tiny saw barely making an impact on this huge Redwood tree.

 

Terry Berlier, Ambassadors of Time, 2013

            Although Berlier obviously cares for the environment and portrays that in her work, it would not be complete without a little bit of irony. Her sculptures make bold statements about her concern for the environment, but you can’t help but notice as you make your way through the exhibit, that most of her work is constructed with wood. Although it is likely recycled, it is ironic for her to make such statements regarding redwood forests, while using wood to construct most of her pieces. This irony may very well be intentional because Berlier often includes irony in her work and we see this humor in When Comes the Sun as well.

            The exhibition does an excellent job at displaying and showing Berlier’s work and all the combining elements; sound, environment and irony. Each of these elements teaches you and makes you aware of the everyday technologies and interventions that are impacting our environment, but does so with an entertaining and engaging twist making the show well worth the while.