BrightestYoungThings: Animal Collective, Danny Perez Collaboration Confuses the Guggenheim

Standing at the top of the spiral on the sixth floor, I waited for my Dos Equis and looked down on the three band members dressed as papier-mâché, alien bunny-rabbit creatures. Next to me stood self-conscious avant-garde students, young professionals and Haley Joel Osmond (Who knew he was a fan?), most of whom had only dreamed of an event like this.

“For the Guggenheim’s 50th Anniversary, the band Animal Collective has collaborated with artist Danny Perez on a site-specific performance piece that will transform the museum’s rotunda into a kinetic, psychedelic environment,” read the Guggenheim’s Web site. “Transverse Temporal Gyrus will feature original recorded music composed specifically for the event along with video projections, costumes, and props, rendering the band members and performers into intense, visual abstractions.”

Unfortunately, I was not as impressed with the overall exhibition as I had hoped. I expected to be immersed with art in every nook and cranny, but I often felt like a bystander and left wondering, “Is anything else going to happen?” But since the Guggenheim is architecturally dazzling, and with Perez’s visual art striking the rotunda walls, I couldn’t help but eventually feel mesmerized.

As spectators came and went over the course of three hours, the event was non-linear and completely ambiguous. People were aimlessly wandering throughout the hallways, lying on the ground, and a few were creating a mini campfire with candles and song. At one point, a group of face-painted teenagers formed a circle in a hallway and sang “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” What was going on? Were people bored or just feeling at home in this “psychedelic environment”?

Frankly, it was a little of both. Though most were underwhelmed, I don’t think anyone would have taken back the experience.