Art New England
October/November 2001
Regional Reviews
Ravi Jain: Museum of Transportation Pioneering

By Doris Birmingham

A winner of the Bromfield’s Competition for Solo Exhibition, multimedia artist Ravi Jain creates a “museum” consisting of videotapes, large-format Polaroid photographs, and memorabilia documenting his personal “transportation pioneering adventures.” These include a first crossing of the Leverett Circle Connector Bridge, the inaugural trip of the Acela Express, and an official tour of the Big Dig. Jain is motivated by nostalgia for the nineteenth-century spirit of adventure, but his nostalgia is laced with humor and irony.
The video pieces are quite hilarious and could easily stand alone, making the accompanying photographic self-portraits and displays of trip “souvenirs” seem superfluous. Jain makes elaborate presentations for his videotaped expeditions, enlisting friends as fellow “pioneers,” designing costumes, and writing a loose script befitting the occasion. For example, for the high-speed Acela ride (3-Speed 2000), he and two friends donned helmets and bright orange jumpsuits, aping the garb of the first American astronauts. Not surprisingly, the costumes attracted the media, whom Jain rewarded with a deadpan delivery of prepared “sound bites,” which were subsequently featured on multiple evening news reports and then incorporated into his video.
Jain offers an engaging commentary on America’s romance with transportation and its fascination with spectacle and the media. With more effective integration of the many elements of his “museum,” this commentary might have had an even greater impact.

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