The University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium is often regarded as a must-see attraction for any Athens newcomer. Paul Pfeiffer, a New York-based contemporary artist and former Lamar Dodd Professorial Chair, intentionally exploits this phenomenon with his audio-visual art piece entitled “Red Green Blue.”
The opening reception for the installation on Aug. 31 marks the first of two collaborations Pfeiffer will have with the Athenaeum, a non-collecting contemporary art gallery affiliated with UGA and Lamar Dodd School of Art, according to their website.
“When you look at the video, you’ll see it’s almost a deconstruction of how the hype of the game is created,” Dr. Katie Geha, director and chief curator for the venue, said of the artist’s collaboration with the UGA Redcoat Band.
The event began at 6 p.m., at which time patrons could enter the transformed studio and treat themselves to an assortment of food and drink before viewing the piece.
In the dimmed, sonically-dominant viewing area, audience members sat on the subwoofer-implanted stairs to get a view of the large flat screen accompanied by a series of red, green and blue background lights.
The video played on a loop so that patrons could view the full 31-minute display no matter their arrival time. Covering the span of three years of UGA football, according to Director of Photography Mo Costello, Pfeiffer’s display covers Athens’ beloved pastime in a never-before-seen fashion.
“I think that the biggest challenge was that you’re going into a space that has specific rules and regulations around what can be recorded,” Mo Costello, director of photography, producer and lead facilitator for the project, said.
The production hosts an amalgamation of cymbals clashing, crowds roaring, horns blaring and an audible catalog of remarks made by the band director, cheerleading coordinator, and the head of audience engagement, according to Geha. Every element combines to construct “hype” in a near scientific fashion.
After presenting his first project at the Apollo Theater in New York City, Pfeiffer returned to Athens to show locals a side of game day they’ve yet to see.
“There's codes that in a way everybody knows, maybe you don't even think about it so much, but this is a kind of whole ritual and nothing is arbitrary. There's a kind of understanding of how to interact,” Pfeiffer said about the piece. “To me, the stadium is like a microcosm of society.”
The show crescendoed around the 8 p.m. mark, where the venue was flipped into a makeshift performance studio that hosted several members of the Redcoats. Blinded by the production lights once used for the stand-alone screen, the musicians played five songs as seen in the production.
“It was so bomb,” Sofia Sonera, an attendee of the show, said. “I really like the pop culture references in the songs … the video was awesome too.”
At the end of the show, what stood out the most was the combined effort from Pfeiffer and his team of more than 25 volunteers composed of professors, students and other university-related participants. Interpretations varied greatly on the way out of the venue. Some noted the fly-on-the-wall nature of the presentation, while others commented on the stark contrast of the boisterous stadium with the somber atmosphere just steps outside.
Pfeiffer will return to the Athenaeum for “In Conversation: Paul Pfeiffer” on Sept. 28. Audiences can witness the layered display as many times as they desire until the closing date on Nov. 18.
