Review

Installation Detail View of "Great Accommodations with Jamie Burkart".

Jamie Burkart
Great Accommodations with Jamie Burkart

9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Paragraph Gallery
23 E. 12th
Kansas City, MO
816.221.5115

Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday (special extended hours)
Runs through: Oct. 3

Artist's site: http://www.rivermarvel.com
Gallery Site: http://www.charlottestreet.org

How best to describe Jamie Burkart's installation at Paragraph Gallery and the Urban Culture Project Space?

Seriously?

There may be no way frame Great Accommodations with Jamie Burkart with words. The show doesn't just fill the twin galleries ... it takes them over and transforms them to the point that, with the exception of the back hallway by the restrooms, the space becomes unrecognizable.

The result is part travelogue, part birth experience, part unsteady hike, part video record, part written word, part social media experiment, part photo show and so on ...

It's interactive -- and occasionally bordering on the psychoactive. And if there's a word for the multiple of "multimedia," it would apply perfectly to this show..

To describe it briefly -- as briefly as possible, that is -- the project was designed to link people who live not only along the Missouri River in and around Kansas City, but near other major waterways in the region.

And, speaking of multiples, Great Accommodations with Jamie Burkhart is the product not of the artist's imagination alone, nor even those of Burkhart and collaborator Suzanne Hogan. By way of explanation, here's an excerpted letter that Burkhart sent out seeking materials for the show:

A couple of years ago, I organized a bicycle-powered paddle wheel raft project.We drifted from Kansas City, down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, until the water tasted like salt. For four months we slept on sandbars. But in the storm we stayed with the restaurant owner. The student and the lumber inspector met us at the shore. With local pride and stewardship, they took us in and took us around. Vickburg, Mississipppi [where the raft was pulled over by the U.S Coast Guard and docked for 51 days until receiving clearance to resume its voyage] cared for us like a parent. So in a way I’m trying to return the favor… I think there are people out there, looking back to their river-view centers and imaging lifestyles for cities on the water. I'm trying to leverage equivalence on the river network to fold every River City into one ‘Cities on the Water.’ Ideally, the show is a local event for every River City in America.

You'd have to ask people from those other cities if Burkart's show succeeds in that aspect. Speaking from a local perspective, though, it's entertaining, thought-provoking and engaging on levels ranging from the visual to the purely conceptual.

This is the part where the words -- unlike the rivers that inspired Burkart -- run dry. From here on out, it's a walk rather than a boat ride. Wear sensible shoes (two words: loose tiles). And if you find yourself falling into fascinated silence ... don't worry.

You're not alone.

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