Sue de Beer’s “Haunt Room” offers psychological thrills and chills on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
The High Line, 14th Street Passage
Daily through Sunday, December 4, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.thehighline.org
www.suedebeer.com
haunt room slideshow
In such recent site-specific works as “Black Sun” and “The Ghosts” and such gallery shows as “Depiction of a Star Obscured by Another Figure,” Sue de Beer creates multimedia sculptural installations that delve deep into the human psyche using dreamlike imagery. Last week de Beer unveiled her latest work, which seeks to give visitors nightmares instead. Two years in the making from its original concept, “Haunt Room” is an infrasound-based fourteen-sided chamber that warns all ye who enter that it might cause “changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate. Infrasound exposure may also temporarily induce feelings of drowsiness, extreme sorrow, pressure in the ears, loss of concentration, and disorientation.” Appropriately enough, the New York-based de Beer was raised in Salem, Massachusetts, and there are likely to be plenty of witches showing up on Halloween to partake of the chills “Haunt Room” offers. The structure stands behind the wall on the High Line’s Fourteenth St. Passage, with a round center room with smoke-colored Plexiglas walls bathed in soft, glowing light and emitting creepy creaks and rumbling noises in addition to inaudible low-frequency sounds meant to induce physical and emotional feelings associated with haunted spaces. If you go in with a group of friends who are chatting away about their trip to Uniqlo or how plastered they got the night before, “Haunt Room” is likely to be a disappointment; however, if you get the chance to experience it with a few like-minded souls who remain quiet, close their eyes, and allow the installation to take over — we recommend imagining yourself trapped in a low-budget horror flick, with no way out — “Haunt Room” will set you off balance, making you feel dizzy and out of sorts.