Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling Review

Born to a working class family in 1928 in the city of Long Beach, California, American installation artist Robert Irwin never even owned a notebook throughout his entire high school academic life. He describes himself as a regular guy and also explains how you only need at least one of your senses to enjoy his work. These types of every day, unassuming qualities emanating from the man himself are just a few of the reasons why Jennifer Lane’s documentary about the adaptive painter, Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling, is an entertaining and enlightening watch.

From his early days of being a friendly and focused teacher who was evolving the talents of some highly regarded names at various universities throughout California, and placing some logistical bets at the local racetrack, Irwin found himself quickly being bored of the beach scene he grew up in and broadened his horizons in terms of space and form.

Combining archival footage that spans his long and storied career, sit down interviews with his colleagues and students, as well as wide, panning shots of his interior and exterior projects throughout, A Desert of Pure Feeling does a superb job of covering the artist who is described as being world-renowned but not thoroughly known in the gallery scene. As the numerous and informative sequences play out that run adjacent to his life’s work, viewers come to understand that Irwin doesn’t really care about the interpretation and focuses more on the experience and the all around spiritual journey that the intended exhibit brings forth to the attendee.

Building an Art Career on Perception

Greenwich Entertainment

Lane spotlights many of Irwin’s creations including the Varese Portal Room, Window Wall as well as giving substantial time to what could be considered his most important collaborative work, the design of the Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. With this specific process, Lane does well showing that even in the most artistic of conventions (in which an exterior and plant-themed structural attraction is built), Irwin had to contend with ideological clashes from another artist and architect named Richard Meier. Not only is this documentary enhanced by this quasi-cinematic conflict, the triumph then paved the way to Irwin’s most recent endeavor, a permanent light and spacial reimagining of a demolished hospital within the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Related: Best Films Set in Los Angeles, Ranked

If A Desert of Pure Feeling was split into three parts, the biographical carving of Robert Irwin as a man stepping into his own as a unique and distinguished artist certainly holds as a stretched introduction. It’s insightful and engaging to go through his beginnings and ultimately see how the numerous producers of the doc eloquently lay out how the man sold his studio, moved to another country, and dived into philosophy. But some thought-provoking statements Irwin made in lectures and interviews about art and society seem to have lost some of their original substance though editing. Decontextualizing some of his brilliant thoughts in order to fit the time constraints of the documentary have unfortunately removed a lot of their power.

Manipulating Light to Create New Experiences

Greenwich Entertainment

Given the fact that the Getty Center development was a massive undertaking (one million feet in size) and so much was happening behind the scenes, this specific saga in Irwin’s life was purposely played out longer in the feature and could be seen as the second act. There was indeed an underlying power struggle between two heavy-handed designers when it came to the structural ebb and flow of this amazingly designed garden, and it essentially proves Irwin’s importance in the world of artistic integrity. He stuck to his vision and won his way at the end of the day.

The film then crafts its final topic and show viewers how Irwin’s “untitled: dawn to dusk” came to be in the backlands of Texas. The art creator’s overall purpose in this medium comes to life more than ever. The pace of A Desert of Pure Feeling slows down and instead of having some type of grand narrator guide the scene, classical music wafts the viewer in and out of this C-shaped specially designed building. Showing how the manipulation of light and space creates an imaginative and nonconformist space, the cinematography featured here allows us to be invisible gallery attendees.

Spatial Awareness Through a Film Lens

As much as these visually appealing scenes try so desperately to convey what Irwin wants us to experience through the use of various film techniques, it cannot be denied that his very specifically curated form of art loses some inherent value because of the nature of filmmaking. As much as his installations can be spellbinding and mesmerizing, his desire for all of us to have our own sensory experience based on spatial cues gets lost in translation as the camera lens, in this case, is our guide. Even though Irwin created a place to engage oneself and experience pure awe, one who is watching the documentary can only imagine the feeling it brings. Related: 7 Stunning Examples of Practical Effects in Recent Films

Of course, Jennifer Lane’s first feature length film can be enjoyed by Robert Irwin’s most devoted followers and those that are entirely new to the deeper side of the art world too. While the feature does need a certain level of focus at times (some of the more philosophical inclinations tend to meander, and could surpass casual fans of the documentary genre), the questions and bemusements that are brought forth from all of his artworks do still invite thought and dialogue. Once the movie truly begins to dive into Irwin’s unique motif about experiencing and not displaying, it does inspire audiences to questions why we’re so inherently connected to a mechanized and automatic way of living as opposed to the thrills of just being aware of your surroundings.

As Irwin says in closing A Desert of Pure Feeling, you will hopefully start to inquire about the smell of clouds as opposed to what they look like. Even with the uplifting and inspirational ending, the movie makes a mistake by intimately focusing on an installation of Irwin’s just before this that doesn’t fundamentally translate well to the viewer who is far and away from the actual experience. Ultimately, A Desert of Pure Feeling ends on a tease more than anything else. While that is good for the artist and his work (in this case), the audience is left feeling a bit hollow when the end credits start to roll.

From Greenwich Entertainment, Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling is in theaters and on digital now.

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