EJ Hill’s Brake Run Helix spins toward exultation
The solo rider in the single cart drops a full story in a rush, lifting both arms overhead and shouting, and the cart slues into a wide arc. Internationally acclaimed Los Angeles artist EJ Hill has created an installation out of experience on an edge of terror and delight.
He has imagined a real, rideable roller coaster in a vast room in an old mill. This fall, Hill has opened Brake Run Helix, the newest exhibit at Mass MoCA.
“Extremes of physical sensation move you to feel something in your gut,” says curator Alexandra Foradas, watching the rider skim backward around the loop overhead.
To work here in this space, the coaster runs entirely run on gravity. The attendant waiting to winch the car back up to the top says that when he sees the roller coaster on a clear day, sunlight will cross the sculpture in bright bars, breaking through it. Then he saw it on a cloudy afternoon, with the lights on within the wooden frame, and the whole structure glowed — “It just exploded.”
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the BTW Berkshires website.
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