In a new exhibition at the Johnson Museum, artwork takes on a very conceptual form. The work, produced by Cornell’s own art faculty, displays a variety of complex ideas and poses questions about the discipline of art itself. The new exhibit confounds the usual practice of many art exhibits, which typically invite the viewer to create a history or explanation based on his or her own unique interpretation and perception of the aesthetic image. Instead, this show asks you to dig deeper to think of the ontological questions that art puts forth.

The exhibit also aims to propose new questions for the discipline of art itself. According to the foreword to the show, the goal “is to problematize experience, to make palpable a condition that is otherwise opaque to perception.” Indeed, the visual nature of many of the pieces did not lend any clue to what the artist had in mind. Their motivating ideas surpass any links that a viewer could make simply through viewing the art and formulating an explanation based on an initial impression. In this regard, experience was completely “problematized.” Nevertheless, the featured pieces succeeded in pushing the bounds of what the discipline of art has to offer.

Consider the video installation by Stephanie Owens, a visiting professor from the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Her installation juxtaposes several live video feeds within the frame of a woman’s silhouette. The video feeds focus on both moving and still objects in and around the Johnson Museum. One feed, for instance, is of passers-by outside of the museum, while another is of a sculpture on one of the Johnson’s upper floors.

The woman’s silhouette partially reveals Owens’ underlying philosophical motive for her art: the complicated role of women within modern day networks. Though not immediately evident, the silhouette belongs to Superwoman. The images within the female figure make up what Owens called the “distributed Goddess system.” There is a contrast between light and dark as well. The live-feeds capture the light change through out the day, constantly manipulating the tones of the piece for new interpretation.

By “network,” Owens refers to dynamic, pre-existing relationships. One can suppose that the “network” portrayed by the videos is a localized manifestation of this idea. The video feeds themselves are also linked together within the Goddess system. Owens did not create any new objects in her work, a statement against the use of space. Rather, she is interested in “re-contextualizing culture.” Says Owens, “there’s too much stuff out there.” This work arises out of spaces between existing objects, and explores what technology can lend to form and content.

“Night III,” a piece by Prof. Barry Perlus, art, also utilizes progressive technological methods to form what he calls a “global moment.” The piece looks from directly above at watery pile of rocks, surrounded by trees and brush in the nighttime. As you move your eye from the center of the frame, focused on the rocks and small tree, to the periphery, the photo becomes blurry and chaotic. In distorting the periphery, Perlus challenges the viewer to rethink the relationship between picture and frame. Instead of looking at one fixed point, Perlus implores you to “view the place in all directions.” Astronauts could understand. In viewing the earth from space, the equator is clearer than the North or South Pole, a visual effect that Perlus re-creates on a much smaller scale with advanced computer tools.

Each piece is indeed “problematic” for the viewer. The other works in the exhibit give the same perplexity. One does not immediately realize that a copy of Let It Be by the Beatles, strewn about the floor, is actually part of the exhibit. A series of nine photo portraits, each portraying the genitalia of eroded classical statues, must have an interest that underlies the homoerotic images. A particularly compelling piece by Prof. Anthony Wayne Graves, art, was entitled “Casino Mirrors,” a photo on mirrored stainless steel. On the surface it portrays what looks like a storage room, with a wandering wire that forms the words “Casino Mirrors.” At the same time, one can see in the reflection, becoming part of the work itself. A slight boggle to the mind, the different works give one the feeling that they have read a provocative philosophical article.