Roman Ondak, "Measuring the Universe"

While looking at the Tate website, I stumbled across the artist Roman Ondak and his installation “Measuring the Universe.” The installation was in September 2011 and began as simply a large white room. Based entirely on viewer participation, visitors were invited to measure themselves against the white wall and with a black marker indicate a line, their name, and the date they participated on. The video below, featuring Martin Clarke from the Tate, portrays the way the piece develops along with the positive and exciting energy of the room. What struck me was that energy that the room had along with the collaboration taking place. Clarke suggests that at the time of they filmed this video around 90,000 people had participated in the making of the piece. As each person makes their mark on the wall, which marks a very personal physicality of the individual, they are becoming a part of this huge collaboration. 

I started exploring more of Ondak’s work and found that a lot of what he makes has to do with time, gatherings of people, and explorations of experience. On the gb agency website it states, “He imbues his drawings, installations, environments, photos and performances with social stratifications in addition to conceptual ones.  Each piece is another step in an evolving process he develops and stimulates.  Using a real fact, a place, a trip, or an experience as a starting point, Roman Ondak informally presents a fiction of his own making, full of repetitions.  He sets the scene and the subject, and different filters skew the infinite replay of each story.  Memory holds a critical place in his work since it implies experience, the past and its meaning, but also because it opens the way for imagination and the unconscious.” When thinking about his “Measuring the Universe” installation in reference to this statement it seems that he involves his concerns with process, repetition, and individual stories. 

In thinking about how Ondak’s art, specifically “Measuring the Universe” could be taken into consideration in the art classroom I immediately thought of the importance of collaboration. I think it would important for students to consider how incorporating not only the entire class in an artwork, but even stretching that the entire school, or town, can bring a community together. I think that art teachers should be considering ways in which students can work together, figuring out ways they can make connections with others through meaningful collaboration. Introducing students to Ondak’s “Measuring the Universe” would be a great place to start.