Rita Valley's Recent Art Work
The Completed Van
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At City Wide Open Studios
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A curious spectator examines the interior.

WetVan was a hit despite unexpected sub-zero temperatures that threatened to turn it into "IceVan".

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One really wonderful aspect of WetVan that is impossible to convey in a website is the auditory effect of all the water. It was like a musical insturment as the sound of trickling, dripping, plashing and gurgling water was amplyfied by the interior space of WetVan, which acted like an echo chamber. Children were particularly entranced by this.

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Overall, I think WetVan was effective. People could interpret and redefine their experiences on many levels: it could be seen as an artistic "lark" in which an artist plays at transforming a piece of Detroit's finest (ahem) engineering. It could be seen as an "aesthetic delivery system" in which art is a kinetic drive-by installation. Or they could mull over the many societal notions implicit in my musings...

Viewers were intriqued by the art object possibilites of an old van. Many people still think of art as being a painting or a photograph or a sculpture. The prospect of actually driving a work of art provoked different responses... suffice it to say I got a lot of "mileage" out of my aesthetic NasCar experiment.

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Click on this image to see more.
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Rita Valley: high-powered art on the move... again