It was at the Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal in the summer of 2000 went I first experienced the dreamlike surrealistic installations of Pipilotti Rist.   I remember how her work played with scale and sentimental childhood nostalgia.  The installation had massive chairs you could perch yourself up on, and sit in a vibrant room filled with sound and video projections.  Her current installation at the New Museum continues this concept, where visitors are invited to lay in beds and watch underwater videos projected on to lily pads on the ceiling.

The best way to describe her work is immersive.  You are pulled through this hanging, pulsating, glowing pixel forest through to a massive projected ocean horizon. Rist’s videos and sculptural work, whether large or small are mesmerizing, captivating, and playful.

The first time I saw Sip My Ocean was at that exhibition in Montréal, I had the pleasure to see it again in Chicago in 2011, and now again at the New Museum.  I love this piece for the tranquility of moving through the water contrasted with the screeching voice singing the sad love song Wicked Games.