NYET
Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, NY (May 5, 2018 - May 4, 2023)
Size: 12 ft. x 19 ft. x 1.5 ft.
Materials: 16 33 inch acrylic convex full dome safety mirrors, aluminum square tubing
and assorted metal hardware mounted on existing 13.5 ft x 9 ft. steel grid.
Would That I Wish For (Broken Totem)
HVCCA, Peekskill, NY
Would That I Wish For (Tall Totem)
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
Would That I Wish For (Tall Totem)
Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico
Previous Installations of Tall Totem:
This is a re-installation of NYET which debuted Sunday October 1, 2017 concert featuring "Antiformalistic Heaven" and "Romances to the Texts from Crocodile Magazine" (a US Premiere) by Dmitri Shostakovich.
The work, simply known as “Rayok” or “The Peep-show,” mocks and satirizes the anti-formalism campaign in the Soviet arts during the late-1940’s that sought to stifle any art that did not conform to the official Soviet cultural policy and resulted in a sustained campaign of persecution and criticism and toward many of the Soviet Union’s foremost composers including Shostakovich himself. It was never publicly performed during Shostakovich’s lifetime.
The installation features sixteen 33-inch dome mirrors arrayed in the pattern of a stylized eye. Each mirror reflects 180-degree views of the dozen or so sculptures on NaCMA's main field and the viewer. In the spirit of Shostakovich, Remec addresses Stalin’s repression of the arts with an enormous eye that looms over and looks down at the viewer and the art. Who is saying nyet to whom?”