No Absolutes
Contemporary Art from the Region

October 8, 2000 - January 7, 2001

Catalogue Essay - Colin Cook

Colin Cook
The desperate postmodern quest for spiritual connectedness and the core meaning of existence are addressed by Colin Cook in his eight-minute video piece, New Age Hypnotism (1999). Against a backdrop of wispy clouds drifting through a stark blue sky, the fully unclothed artist floats weightlessly around the circumference of a larger-than-life circular image projected on the gallery wall. Cook's image initially creates a sense of hypnotic calm and tranquility in the viewer, who is quickly and unwittingly sucked into the vortex of the artist's almost hallucinatory vision.

Cook painlessly provides us with a scathing, although humorous, critique of the instant transcendence and well-being promised by today's pop psychology and religious fundamentalism. The artist casts a jaundiced eye on both the psychological and the divine by calling upon the viewer to "get in touch with his inner child" and "walk barefoot through fields of lilies," exhortations that smack of the quick-fix promises of televangelists, self-help books, telephone psychics and even internet tarot card readers.

The viewer is unceremoniously brought back to earth by the artist's sneezing, an involuntary act that causes the onlooker to awaken from the dream-like spell induced by Cook's gentle mantras. The viewer's sense of comfort and relaxation is supplanted by reality-grounded skepticism, forcing more analytic observation. We are compelled to acknowledge the artist's distortion of reality and perception, embodied in Cook's oddly shaped oversized head and skimpy, childlike body.

John D. Spiak
Curatorial Museum Specialist
Arizona State University Art Museum

Return to the No Absolutes exhibition

For more information contact John Spiak at spiak@asu.edu.

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