The Paradise Institute at the Corcoran

By Katie Tuss

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s highly lauded installation The Paradise Institute has returned to the Corcoran Gallery of Art to join other ground-breaking modern and contemporary works of art as part of the Corcoran’s museum-wide exhibition redefined: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collection.

On the outside The Paradise Institute is little more than a shed with stairs, but inside the set up is far from plebeian. Upon entering, the maximum audience of sixteen people has a choice of the first or second row in a balcony of a perfectly modeled, technically astounding miniature theater. Cardiff and Miller succeeded in fitting a full-scale classic movie house, complete with architectural molding, red velveteen seats, and a big screen into a one-room gallery space. But the illusion has only just begun.

Viewers don headphones and a thirteen minute film noir mystery starts rolling. Within ten seconds of starting, a latecomer scoots noisily along the back aisle. This disturbance is followed by a couple’s unsolicited commentary, popcorn crunching, and a requisite cell phone ring shrill in your left ear.

As the movie unfolds, the plot grows murkier and the separation between the action on the screen and the activities of the audience blurs. The rankling sense of inescapable narrative immersion is more palpable than the dark story told by the film projector.

For those who have experienced any of Cardiff’s acclaimed sound walks, including Words Drawn in Water, which was commissioned by the Hirshhorn Museum last fall, the female whisper in your ear may sound familiar. But it may also feel distinctly different. Both use binaural audio soundtracks to capture the texture of surround sound. Whereas Words Drawn in Water seemed to be an intimate stroll amongst friends, The Paradise Institute is an unnatural, sometimes disconcerting expansion of the viewer’s understanding of narrative.

Cardiff and Miller are married and work both independently and as a team. Their multimedia pieces are internationally recognized, but none more highly than The Paradise Institute, which rightly won the prestigious Benesse Prize at the 2001 Venice Biennale.
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The Corcoran Gallery of Art is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm, and until 9:00 pm on Thursdays. The Paradise Institute every half hour daily, starting at 10:30 am with the last viewing beginning at 4:30 pm and at 8:30 pm on Thursday nights.