New ribbons installation at Ringling invites you to 'swim through color'

You know how art is usually a “ooh look at that pretty thing” and then move on to thinking about it sort of experience? This is not one of those things.

Hermitage artist Anne Patterson has a new exhibit opening at the Ringling museum today, Friday, Nov. 4. It’s the first in the museum’s new permanent contemporary art gallery space.

Titled “Pathless Woods,” the exhibit is interactive and multimedia and awesome. Patterson has taken over 8,000 brightly-colored satin ribbons and tied them to ropes that hang throughout the space. Black theater curtains cover the walls. Lights shine on the ribbons, making them glow and shine, and projections skim the tops, changing the colors as you go. There’s even a special pinewood-scent part of the exhibit, to be sprayed on Thursdays when the museum is open later.

Ana Juarez, a student of FSU’s Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies program, works on getting ribbons ready to hang for Anne Patterson’s “Pathless Woods” exhibit. Herald-Tribune staff photo / Rachel S. O’Hara

Anne Patterson’s “Pathless Woods” exhibit will be opening in the new Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Gallery for Contemporary Art at The Ringling Friday, Nov. 4. Volunteers as well as students from FSU’s Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies program have been helping Patterson get the exhibit ready. Herald-Tribune staff photo / Rachel S. O’Hara

Volunteers let ribbons fall down from their bags as the exhibit starts to unfold in the new Keith D. and Linda L. Monda Gallery for Contemporary Art at The Ringling. Herald-Tribune staff photo / Rachel S. O’Hara

Guests get to walk/run/jog/hop/skip through the “forest of ribbons,” and, as the artist herself puts it, “swim through color.”

The idea is to immerse yourself in the exhibit and experience a wave of senses. Patterson has a neurological phenomenon called synesthesia, which allows her to see shapes and colors when she hears music. For her, music is linear. Numbers have genders and personalities. It’s actually becoming more and more studied as neuroscience develops, but that’s not the point. This exhibit is An Absolute Experience to walk through. You get the idea by the photos and video but it’s honestly something you have to experience yourself.

“The Pathless Woods” opens Nov. 4 and runs through May at The Ringling, 5401 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota. Museum admission $25. 941-359-5700; ringling.org.