Ten Thousand Waves (2010)

Isaac Julien’s film installation, Ten Thousand Waves (2010) displayed in the Artruim of MoMA is projected onto a nine double-sided screens that allows the viewer the ability to move between screens through the dynamic space. The installation’s massive environment in the Artruim plays with the idea of movement and verticality, including sequenced moving images surrounded with sound and music of both Eastern and Western traditions staged in old and contemporary streets of Shanghai. Julien utilizes actors with cinematic qualities that reenact Chinese culture with its ancient myths through film making production. Through out the film Julien captures movement through the city of Shanghai, a fisherman lost in the sea and a women levitating and floating around which represents the fable of a goddess Mazu. The characters notion of movement in and out the screen is eye catching through the sequenced moving images of Shanghai’s environment revealing vibrant colors and literature that decorates the city. These moving images play as if it is one big screen through out the nine double-sided screen projection as the staged environment and actors move to one screen to the other. This notion of movement is very unique where these qualities aren’t viewed in cinematic theaters. In theaters the viewer is absolutely fixed in one position where as in this space the viewer can foam freely through the cinematic effect in Issac Julien’s film installation.

Ten Thousand Waves

I went to the exhibit at 11am, a half hour after the museums opens.  Even in it’s early hours the MOMA was filled with anxious art lovers.  I could hear Isaac Julien’s installation echoing from the second floor to the first.  Seven suspended screens circled the perimeter of the room, two in the middle.  The first thing I notice are the speakers and the sound.  The two center screens had two speakers each.  The surrounding seven screens each had an individual speaker.  The tone was tranquil and peaceful.   You had to turn your head many times because of the massiveness of the double sided screens.  I was constantly shifting, making sure I wouldn’t miss a single shot.  It was the sound that helped navigate where the audience is supposed to look.  Besides the sounds of water and the earth, voices would narrate the manifesto.  A deep man’s voice and a soft woman’s voice would interchange.  Whispers, moans, sighs, and breathing added to peaceful atmosphere.  The landscapes were breath-taking, various different angles (shown on different screens simultaneously) were shot of the same location.  What I enjoyed most about the piece was Julien’s addition of production scenes, showing the camera.  With nine screens the possibilities and opportunities are endless.  My favorite shots were of the woman in front of the green screen.  The audience can see how the artist used a fan to create the illusion of an outside atmosphere, and how the woman was attached to a puppeteer. The values of the screens changed from white to black.  The artist created an interesting atmosphere in the museum by painting Chinese characters on glass in-between himself and the camera.  The characters created a wall I couldn’t understand between his world and ours.  With a language barrier, the piece lost some of its importance, only to those who couldn’t understand Chinese.  Regardless of the speech, the installation was a relaxing virtual boat ride through China, that became uneasy at specific parts when the nature was stripped and replaced by trollies, traffic, and the city.  I enjoyed the space because not only did it provide seats, it welcomed lying down and looking up at the screens like stars.

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