Anri Sala’s MOCA show explores art between frequencies

Sometimes, say at twilight, a dog can appear to be a wolf. And sometimes, in the middle of Texas, a radio transmission of a symphony concert can sound like a country western song.
These junctures where images and sounds have the potential to be something other than what we first perceived, are where Albanian artist Anri Sala explores his art.
With Anri Sala: Purchase Not By Moonlight at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, the artist transformed the galleries into multisensory spaces where seven films were projected onto walls, and drums נwired to an unseen power source נtapped in response to the films’ vibrations.
Hundreds attended Tuesday night’s MOCA Vanity Fair party to view Sala’s work and experience a performance of A Spurious Emission, a Sala piece that involved a trio from the Cleveland Orchestra, a country western quartet and a radio announcer. The performance, inspired by a radio transmission Sala heard in Texas, evoked the dissonance of a radio stuck between two frequencies. Sala said his art tries to capture ”this moment when something could be something else.” MOCA director Bonnie Clearwater said Sala’s exhibition in the galleries attempts to choreograph the audience, leading them from one film to the next. ”In a way,” she said, “we’re following the light.