artsMEDIA
June – July 2001
Review
Wool and Wizardry

By Shawn Hill

There is something that unites the (otherwise quite divergent, both in content and in medium) work of Ravi Jain and Amy Ross. Or, at least gives a hint of why they might both have been chosen out of the jurying process for their shared show at the Bromfield Gallery. Both artists have a sense of humor, and allow it to color their work. Quite exactly what the joke is, and just what we’re laughing at, is not always straightforward.
Jain calls himself a “Transportation Pioneer,” and his work here (staged as a mini-museum within the gallery) provides documentary evidence of his experiences (adventures? Performances?) living up to that term. What it seems to amount to is Jain coming up with a persona to experience transportation firsts: first person across a new bridge, first rider on the Acela train, first member of the first official tour of the Big Dig.
Jain’s primary visual offering here are a selection of gorgeous large Polaroids, each one a lustrous, spotlit portrait of who he became to accomplish each of his journeys. That’s Professor von Hardwigg (from the fiction of Jules Verne) in pin-striped suit and horn-rim glasses, embarking underground to survey the Big Dig. For the first Acela all-electric ride, Jain became “Electric Man,” borrowing a ridiculous costume from a relative and posing dramatically for posterity (not to mention fleeing from authorities at one point, who were confused by this unexpected rider).
Jain’s gestures are quixotic, infused with boyish charm, but not exactly hopeless.
In “3Speed2000” (recorded in a clever documentary video), Jain and two friends donned crash helmets and flight uniforms for the first high-speed Acela ride between DC and Boston. They were equal parts racecar drivers and grounded astronauts. Several news outlets, only too happy to find a visual icon for their own spin on the celebration, included Jain’s journey (and his carefully prepared soundbites) in their coverage.

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