The Institute of Contemporary Art welcomed “Charles Atlas: About Time” Oct. 10, a new temporary exhibit that immerses visitors in Atlas’ films and videos. 

Atlas is an American filmmaker and video artist whose main focus is capturing dance, performance and collaborators on camera. The exhibit is an assemblage of Altas’ work over the past 50 years, giving visitors an overview of his work and an engrossing experience. 

During the early years of his career, Atlas spent time at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a filmmaker-in-residence. It was there where he worked with Cunnigham to create a new genre called “media-dance,” where dance was made for being on camera instead of on stage. 

Many of the videos throughout the exhibit showcase this genre, where the camera moves along with the dancers on film instead of being stationary during the performance. 

The exhibit starts off easy, minimalistic and quiet compared to the rest of the following galleries. The first room contains one large wall-to-wall screen in the back with four vertical screens in front meant to mimic gravestones. 

The back screen has four young people displayed, appearing to be in space with a black background and specks of white floating around them. They are silently observing Atlas’ work as it plays on the screens in front of them. 

Those screens are slowly scrolling through 77 different films and videos made by Atlas with the years that these pieces were made intermittently appearing between the videos, scrolling with them. 

This piece, titled “The Years,” shows the wonder that Atlas has for what future generations will think of his work. 

Continuing into another gallery, visitors are met with a dizzying array of noise and screens. 

There are multiple huge projector screens hanging at various heights and angles from the ceiling, they are the only light source in the room. There are also a few older, small box TVs around the edges of the room. 

Different videos are playing across the multiple screens, but each screen is part of the larger work “MC9” by Atlas. The screens are playing various videos and their audio, showcasing media-dance in action. 

Visitors are made to feel as if they are walking through the work instead of just looking at it, adding to the already created effect from the non-stationary cameras that filmed the dancers. 

One part of the exhibit poses a stark contrast from the others. Three of the walls are bright orange and are accompanied by orange lights shining down from above creating spotlights on the floor. The fourth is covered in wallpaper made of a collage of images that prepare the visitors for what they will see on the TVs in the room.

TVs are placed on orange columns, set up in a spiral in the center of the gallery, each one rising a little bit higher than the one before it. 

The installation titled “Personalities” contains 12 TVs in the room total all of which showcase a different personality with bizarre and compelling imagery that Atlas has collaborated with. These include artists, musicians and performers, as well as Altas’ longtime partner and father. 

This section of the exhibit is in part a dedication to all the creative partners and collaborators that Atlas has worked with throughout his career. 

The TVs show visitors who these people are and what they do and the collage of images of his creative partners lining one full wall of the room represents their collaboration and friendship through Atlas’ over 50 years of work. 

“Charles Atlas: About Time” leaves the ICA March 16 of next year. It is certainly an immersive experience and there is more to see than what has been said above. As a whole, the exhibit can be quite overwhelming with the amount of noise, blue light and imagery. 

However, the concept is intriguing, each room being its own piece even though they include various films and videos, makes the installation worth a visit.

The ICA has a few events being held during the exhibit’s installation. Multiple guided tours are scheduled throughout the installation, two gallery talks will be given by museum curators on Charles Atlas and even a presentation from Atlas himself will occur in March. 

The exhibit includes flashing lights and loud sounds, and mature content such as nudity, simulated violence and sexual content.