P.R.S.S.
From Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program
Artists: Richard Shelton and Piotr Szyhalski
October 10 – November 30, 2003
Minnesota Artists Gallery
Artists Richard Shelton and Piotr Szyhalski collaborated for the first time to create an interactive installation called P.R.S.S. for the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program. P.R.S.S. was inspired by the artists' fascination with the radical investigations of John C. Lilly, Stanley Milgram, Kasimir Malevich, and Ivan P. Pavlov. The exhibition dealt with essential aspects of contemporary human behavior by reflecting on particular dynamics of learning, perception, moral position, resistance, and the disconnections among us all. The P.R.S.S. installation was composed of four chambers in which the viewer experienced a series of virtual images and sounds and participated in their alteration. It was the artists' intention that a range of visceral, emotional, and spiritual responses be experienced through a non-linear installation.
P.R.S.S. was inspired by the artists' independent studies: Shelton was fascinated with the neural research of Lilly, a scientist obsessed with dolphins, LSD, and with his own self-inflicted isolation experiments; and with Milgram, who is known for his obedience (shock) experiments, performed after the Nuremberg trials, and for the famous theory that no one is more than six degrees removed from anyone else. Szyhalski focused on the Suprematist painting of Malevich, who stripped his art down to its very essence (a black square), and Pavlov, a scientist famous for his research with the conditioned reflex of dogs. P.R.S.S. is not intended to pay homage to these four historical figures, but rather to reflect some of the principles of their work.
Each artist created two of the four chambers. Piotr Szyhalski's first chamber set up a situation in which things happen while the viewer holds still. In Szyhalski's second chamber he set out to create a pure state of emotion, looking directly at the violence that humans inflict on each other. Richard Shelton's chambers referenced Lilly's work with dolphins and Milgram's infamous shock experiments. In his first chamber, a virtual dolphin talked to the viewer, answering to any question it is asked. Shelton's second chamber alluded to Milgram's research on human cruelty and obedience.
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Related Works of Art
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 Installation view |
 Card key vending for entry into viewing rooms |
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 Entering the room |
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 Piotr Szhyalski and Richard Shelton, Dolphin Oracle ll, 2003, installation view |
Related Materials
Related Events
- Opening Reception, Thursday, October 9, from 7 to 9 p.m.
- Artist-led Public Tour, Sunday, October 19, at 3 p.m.
- Critics’ Trialogue featuring art critic Andrew Knighton in conversation with the artists and the public, MAEP gallery, Sunday, November 16, at 3 p.m. Read Knighton's response at mnartists.org.
