Beyond the trips of Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and the Legendary town of Sleepy Hollow lies a gallery/exhibit space unlike any other. Still striving to retain it's expansive production and manufacturing history, the refurbished printing plant (built by Nabisco) turned art gallery - Dia:Beacon - is a site that elicits intrigue and solicits participation up close and from a distance. Although the rotational and permanent exhibits of the Dia facility are left open to interpretation, its experientially and sequential stories (legends) induce a unique understanding of art-in-place.
Dia:Beacon is a satellite campus of the NYC art juggernaut competing for pole position with the likes of the Met, MOMA, and many other converted industrial facilities. A site that houses spatially ambitious contemporary and modern art installations, paintings, and multimedia experiences also serves up an exploratory gallery experience like no other. For the ambitious and curatorially curious, Dia:Beacon serves up art that seeks to define and encourage outdoor participation and waterfront engagement - blurring the lines between art for consumption and landscape as art.
A thoughtful intervention about 1km away from the main galley space itself is a 'pause' along the Hudson River waterfront created by George Trakas. Aspiring to the likes of Robert Smithson's 'Spiral Jetty', 'Beacon Point' seeks to provoke our senses and shed light on our influences upon the vernacular landscape. Most striking and memorable is the symbiotic experience of this place with the Dia facility. Distinctly affiliated with it's familial counterparts within Manhattan, Dia:Beacon resides outside the zone of influence; the intellectualized and philosophical realm of the art circles of Manhattan. A distinctly unique destination of sorts, Beacon Point and the supporting facility relentlessly draws visitors from far and wide, creating an aura of mythology around itself that only distance, reputation, and perhaps even legend could possibly maintain.
More than the art itself, the physical spaces of the gallery and it's environs speak volumes and elicit a corporeal response to place that is truly unique. The route upon which one journeys to this mythical landscape along the historical haunts of the Hudson River undoubtedly has a distinct influence on their degree of enjoyment and ones anticipation of arrival. Route 9, obviously a more aged and meandering route, tantalizes ones emotive responses to the emergence and plethora of green that abounds ones vehicular experience en route. Mature 'tunnels' of London plane and chestnut trees line romantically intimate single lane drives through rolling topography that drift through nodes of urban historical settlement. Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, and the likes of Dobbs Ferry lay in wait to tell their story through the low density and small town feel of old American settlement, heavily informed by industrial evolution (and gradual dissolution) along the Hudson River. This historical and slow-paced sequence on the trip to Beacon succeeds in couching our anticipation and expectations of art within the context of an experiential pilgrimage. Arriving to park our car within a diverse orchard of flowering fruit trees and a seasonally changing landscape only serve to elevate one's leisurely pleasures of the day and highlight the site-specific nature of this facility and its accoutrements.
Perhaps the Sunday drive is not entirely a remnant of the Model T Ford era that promoted the use of the vehicle as a vessel for freedom and personal expression. In fact, my recent visit to Dia:Beacon only serves to reinforce an idea that predates the vehicle and the socially contrived associations of the 'gallery-goer'. The exhibition of art is much more than mere consumption. Instead it is a catalyst for exploration, critical thought, and most importantly the experience, acknowledgent, and appreciation for 'the journey' involved in our daily lives - that which are of a scale that cannot possibly be accommodated by only conventional means.
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