Sight Line: For Mona Lisa

Sight Line: For Mona Lisa ^ ^ ne never knows what one is going to discover when viewing entries from a juried show. This year's surprise was the increased number and variety of installations and interactive works. They ran the gamut from high to low tech, from physically engaging sculptures to sound pieces and artworks incorporating new technologies. One of these entries, a low-tech piece entitled For Mona Lisa, presents an interesting viewpoint—what can be seen without seeing. It was created by a group of artists, pARTners, who have a sensitivity for the physically challenged. pARTners consists of Jon Berge, Michelle Lach, and Chris Yoculan. The advent of new technologies enables people with physical limitations to communi­ cate more easily. They are able to be in touch with large segments of the world's popula­ tion without leaving their environment. This newfound freedom has also helped open doors to new opportunities in employment as well as to entertainment and the arts. For Mona Lisa is a wall-mounted sculpture made of birchwood, paper, bronze, Braille, and CD audio that provokes questions such as What is seeing? and How do people see? It explores questions of age, as well as of physical, economic, and cultural diversity. Its genesis is key to the work as a whole. pARTners showed a poster of the Mona Lisa to loo inner-city children aged 7 to 14, all from a boy's and girl's club in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The children were asked to respond to the following chal­ lenge: Imagine ways of helping individuals who can't see or feel the image to under­ stand what the portrait of Mona Lisa looks like. pARTners felt the children's honesty and innocence would help transcend the barriers of physical limitations. The children's written responses are incorporated in the installation in several ways. All loo statements, written on 8 1/2 x 11-inch school paper, are thumbtacked to the wall, forming a horizontal rectangle. In addition, four of the statements were translated into Braille, printed on brown paper, and mounted in the middle of four birchwood panels, each the same size as the Mona Lisa (30 1/4 x 21 inches). These panels are hung in a horizontal row above the statements, each one held out from the wall by a pair of Mr. Berge's hands cast in bronze. The panels are carefully mounted on the wall at eye height for the children and for Mr. Berge in his wheelchair. The children's statements are also used in audio form. When visitors approach For Mona Lisa within 1 foot, they hear the statements read aloud. Through For Mona Lisa, pARTners has opened up the possibilities for a visual work of art to communicate along nonvisual pathways. Things I take for granted, such as vantage point and physical environment, are brought more acutely to my attention through this piece. Thank you, pARTners, for allowing me the opportunity to see another way. Barbara Nessim Curator, Gallery Artworks Digital Salon, Curator's Statement 433 ...