Museum Review // The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT October 14th 2024

 https://thealdrich.org/

Photos from our visit can be found in a Facebook album located here :::

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1593946274668921&type=3

With this being a day off from school, Quentin and I headed down to Ridgefield CT to visit the fourth stop on our CT Art Trail tour.   Driving past the Danbury Mall, you can see the roads slowly turn into this small down town with independently owned shops and a lot of people walking around.  It reminded me a lot of Main Street in Middletown CT except that I practically grew up in that area and so this one was new to me and felt more exciting.  

There was construction on the main road which we turned left off of to get into The Aldrich, but there was also construction at The Aldrich itself.  We were informed that there was a sculpture garden but it wouldn't be back until November this year, so that is perhaps something to revisit in the Spring of 2025.   Otherwise the inside of The Aldrich is not that big and when I asked while checking in if this was a free range museum I was told it was only two floors.

The Aldrich breaks down into, essentially, four main exhibits: one of them being videos.    Throughout the first floor there are what look like old boxes flattened out and framed, placed on various wall space.  This is an exhibit called "Overshoot" by Miles Huston and you might not even know it was an exhibit while looking at it, but Quentin and I made sure to walk every place we were allowed to within this museum.

Also on the first floor was a set of three different videos with the piece by Maya Jeffereis in its own room.   A short film- about eleven and a half minutes- played on a loop while lights in an opposite corner shined down on what looked like shards of broken light tubes.   There are benches to sit and experience the whole thing and this was quite the trip to take.  I'm not sure if Quentin knew what to make of all of this, but it was something I did enjoy.

Of the two main exhibits we saw "Dawn and Dusk" by Layo Bright first.   At first, there are two heads which are opposite colors and spaced apart to show that difference between the light and the dark.   In one room there were these collages that had color themes and pieces of mirrors in them that I really liked.  But there were also what I can only describe as being shelves that had plants on them and that to me just looked like gardening more than art.

In another room there was a working fountain and a few other pieces of visual art to see.   The fountain was running slowly but we were told it was running at different times, so if we waited we could've seen it at full power.  From the mirrors to the plants there is a whole lot that can be thought of within here in terms of light and darkness.  There is a whole science behind plants and photosynthesis so this was definitely an exhibit that was visually appealing but also stimulated the mind.  

Perhaps the main event for The Aldrich is "Eminem Buddhism, Volume 3" by Elizabeth Englander.   This was the only exhibit I looked at online before we went to The Aldrich and it did not disappoint in person.   These are reworked wooden pieces and one of them was just full of nutcracker heads.   You can get different views of them, but they are taped around so you cannot get too close.  Seeing them individually up close but then also from different angles as a whole presented different feelings as they had many details you might not pick up on from afar.

There were other wooden pieces within a different room as well and when I asked Quentin what his favorite piece of all of them was he picked Yogini no. 33, which also happened to have a post card available for it in the gift shop.  We picked that post card up for his scrapbook but also got a small magnet for the refrigerator and two books- one about Layo Bright and one about Elizabeth Englander- which were there to go with their exhibits.  By the end of this all we're likely going to end up with a nice library of literature on art because of what we've been seeing and I'm fine with that.

Overall, while The Aldrich is small it is mighty.  This might feel like the type of museum you're going out of your way for but it's worth it.   There is enough around it to keep you busy for the day as well and as the sculpture garden will be re-opening soon I'm sure Quentin and I will be back when the weather is warm (Though it is still fairly warm right now, considering it is October).  Perhaps every time they change up their exhibits we'll take the drive and see what there is to see.  It is definitey an experience to have.