She Moved Me To Tears
She Moved Me To Tears
Have you ever been moved by visual art? It's a strange, unsettling feeling. Something you are looking at without your permission taps on an emotional nerve. And, before you can even register it is happening, your eyes are full of puddles of feelings that are teetering on the edge of overflow.
That happened to me on Sunday at the Frist Art Museum.
I was watching a video installation piece composed of six panels. On the panels, a series of videos were playing in a loop. “Sisters” by The Halluci nation boomed and engulfed you as you approached the screens.
The videos showed a dancer, Sarah Ortegon, in a jingle dress. As she danced, the beads on her dress danced too. Then, the video morphed into a show of kaleidoscope cuts from the videos. Each video cut spiraled, turning the actual woman and her ritual garment into a video mimicking the dancing of the beads.
It was mesmerizing, magical, and moving.
To the left of the screens was the collage piece you see in the picture above. She never dances alone.
Chills bloomed on my arms, and it took everything in me not to just break down and cry.
I kind of wish I had. I wish I had sat on the bench and sobbed like a mad woman.
What a rare gift to be moved so deeply. I’m so happy I experienced it, but I will do my best not to let myself squash the momentum when it happens again.
Art is supposed to move us, and it so rarely does. We should enjoy it as if eating cake for the first time.