When first walking into the Museum of Fine Art in Denver viewers are met with a sheet of paper (about 2x3’) pinned only a few inches above the floor. On the paper, a man (seen from above) is dancing, but not the sort of dancing seen at late night dance floors. His is the type you can see only from the director of the former Frankfurt Ballet, the experimental dance company based in Germany. The dancer’s hands seem to be actively propelling the rest of his body in a style utilizing his movement as only a professional dancer and choreographer could. The piece depicts a man (William Forsythe) from above, dancing in a predetermined space in an empty warehouse studio. White tape attaches a device to his palm that seems to be the device that Berlin sculptor Peter Welz used as he recorded – with pencil on the paper that the video is projected upon - the motions of the dance. The marks Welz created are suggestive of an analytical study, yet they are squiggled lines that resemble the marks of a broken Spyrograph - describing nothing outside itself. The faint sounds of the dancer’s steps, breaths, and rustling clothes can be heard looping continuously throughout the duration of the performance, broken only by the dancer’s freeze as a voice monotonously announces “stop,” and the projecting image fades to allow a highlight of the drawing, which is only faintly visible throughout the video. The title card next to the sheet announces that this is airdrawing/forsythe/above/right hand movement, a video projection on paper by the Welz. This piece was a successful introduction to the theme of the human body’s relationship to space and perception that was the focus of the exhibition Truss Thrust: The Artifice of Space.

Curator Cydney Payton grouped this piece and with that of other artists in the exhibit Truss Thrust to help identify those artists that may be pushing the boundaries of our perceptions of space. She has dubbed this curated gathering the first large exhibition in Denver dedicated solely to video art, specifically video performance art. Bringing contemporary standards to the area is not new to Payton, who has long been a prominent figure in the growing arts community of Denver as the former director of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and the forth most influential “cultural force” in Denver according to the Rocky Mountain News. Payton has found success through her ability to glean and exhibit contemporary local and international artists, often before other venues hear of them. This exhibition featured three artists and seven works in the lower gallery of the museum.

Further down the hall from airdrawing/forsythe/above/right hand movement, a similar piece titled airdrawing II/front/hand in study/movement of the right hand incorporates two video horizontally displayed on larger sheets of paper (approximately 5x7’). On the left sheet Forsythe’s dance is depicted from the front (with accompanying line-notes recorded in black permanent marker), and on the right side Forsythe’s dance from the perspective of his arm, where a camera has been affixed. By providing a first hand view of the motions of the performer Welz provides the viewer with an interesting experience that at times is as dizzily exciting as an amusement park’s Scrambler ride.

The largest Weltz installation included here is the fall/onto architectural device platform/double below. This work features two vertically video projections projected onto two temporary walls. On one wall was projected a man and on the other wall was a woman. The two stand at the edge of the “floor” surface and fall, full force forward onto the floor, hands shooting out in front at the last moment as their faces and bodies press fully against the surface. Then the two performers crawl to their upright starting position where they repeat the whole procedure over again. This continual performance combines with an audio that allowed viewers to experience the thumps of each fall, a sound that echoed faintly throughout the entire museum.

Welz has created the majority of his recent work through video such as these. His installations have long involved the human body in a minimalist style similar to the style of Juan Munoz and Bruce Nauman. He has exhibited through New York, Chicago, and Germany.

Though Welz is the most prominent artist on display in this exhibition, he is by no means all Payton has to offer in Truss Thrust. In two darkened new media rooms, video works by Spanish artist Sergio Prego continued investigations of the body moving through space uniquely. The first of the two rooms includes the video ANTI that depicts a small group of men in a space only too familiar as the white-walled art gallery. A metal track installed along the ceiling perimeter connects to harnesses that are worn across each performer’s torso and waist as they move single-filed, walking horizontally on the walls and wearing video cameras on their heads to document the video that created ANTI. Through this footage, perceptions of gravity are altered by the ease in which these performers leap, walk, or run along the route of the track, and by the video frame being shifted to suggest that they are verticality.

In the next room, Prego’s Cowboy Inertia Creeps depicts a man in cowboy boots, tight blue jeans, and a dark jacket laying on his stomach, motionless street-side next to a concrete construction barrier. With stop-motion editing the “Cowboy” is propelled at alternate speeds along the bordering walls, fences, and curbs of the city’s street. His body maintaining the gesture of one who has passed out in a ditch somewhere, which suggests he is not in possession and only faintly conscious of his body’s “space travels.” The accompanying audio during the cowboy’s travels paces with low tapping industrial bass pops that provide a rhythmic accompaniment to the video. As reflective as this video appears, the stop-motion editing effect (prevalent in MTV videos and children’s animations) adds an element of humor to the film that obstructs the “suspension of belief” needed to make this piece a successful view into spatial perception.

Prego has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Spain. His curricula vitae include exhibitions at the Gagosian Gallery, and PS1 Contemporary Arts Center, the California College of Arts and the Venice Biennale.

The weakest link in this themed exhibition is the Blue Noses Group’s Little Men, which was installed in a separate room of the museum. In this room, a ring of eight cardboard boxes lay on the floor with eight corresponding video projectors positioned above each box. Scenes projected onto the boxes suggested the opening of portals within the cardboard that viewers looked down into to view eight different performances by a group of men, women, and a few props. These performances included a toy alligator chasing a group of men and women across the room, a human bowling game where three nude women stand upright while lone men somersault towards them (as he approaches the women pretend to all fall down, giggle, and return to their former places), a leap frog game, a couple riding horseback on one another, and a man lifting a weight bar with an erection. Each video has its own audio that includes animal sounds, chattering voices, and lots of giggling.

The Blue Noses Group, a group of Russian artists including Viatcheslav Mizin, Alexander Shaburov, Konstantin Skotnikov, and Dimitrij Bulnygin was founded in 1999. Through their career they have gained a reputation for their witless, artistic imbecility works that are often related to the 1970s’ British comedian Benny Hill. Their work has been exhibited throughout Moscow and has been included in two Venice Biennials.

Overall Truss Thrust would have provided a stronger case if more artists were included to support the curator’s theme of spatial explorations. Such possibilities may be more prevalent in late 2006 when the Museum of Contemporary Art moves into its new location in lower downtown Denver, a contemporary building designed by Adjaye Associates of London.