Considering that the Washington Post's freelance art critic Jessica Dawson wrote, "I regret to report that almost all of the six solo shows filling Arlington Arts Center are underwhelming" when she visited the Arlington Arts Center recently, I wasn't really expecting an artistic epiphany during my recent visit to see Nestor Hernandez's portraits of Cuban-Americans currently on exhibition on the lower level of the center.
Wrong!
The visit to the Arlington Arts Center unexpectedly revealed one of the most memorable art installations that I have ever seen, and even though critics often have different opinions, I am honestly puzzled that Dawson didn't mention the amazing installation in the main floor gallery.
I am referring to Cristin Millett’s astounding solo show at the Center.
Not being familiar with Millett’s work, I asked the Center’s hardworking director Claire Huschle to tell me a bit about both the artist and the installation. I then stepped back and listened as Claire smartly dissected and explained the installation and commented on it, and then I realized why Jessica missed it completely — listening being the operative word here.
"She grew in a medical household," explained Huschle as we walked into the installation. This revelation (I believe) is the key to understanding (and appreciating) Millett's work; forgive my using the critic's crutch and let me describe it for you.
The installation consists of a maze-like circular corridor titled "Teatro Anatomico", which uses Andre Levret’s 18th-century schematic representations of the female reproductive system at the time of conception.
Millett has reproduced them into chiffon sheets that hang from aluminum tubing, which form the maze and deliver a very convincing impression of both a hospital setting and a surgical theater, set up in uterine forms that lead to a central point.
There’s a certain strange Victorian parlor elegance to this first part of the installation, and the technical skill is admirable, both in the hand stitching of the ladylike chiffon and the construction of the aluminum tubing.
Millett has constructed a convincing anatomical theatre with a subtle nuance of the female reproductive system (even the Victorian lighting seems like a vagina when viewed from the outside); we are entering a medical theatre, where anatomy students, erotica voyeurs, and art observers all meld into one.
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