The Whitney Museum is currently featuring a video projection/film by Sadie Benning entilted “Pause Play.”  You enter a large, darkened room with others standing, some sitting, against the walls.  If you brave the dark open space you may be rewarded with an empty, square ottoman to sit on.

The projection is a series of drawings set to music.

Overall the piece vacillates back and forth between the ordinary, the entertaining, and the tragic.  We see scenes of urban malaise: dilapidated buildings and barren landscapes.

There is an interesting interlude at a local bar, “Ze Bar.”  The night seems to progress in several stages.  First, there is the introduction: Play Pause: Ze Bar Early On

Then, the drowning one’s sorrows: Ze Bar Blues

Finally, there is ebullient celebration as the night gets older and the music at “Ze Bar” gets faster:  Pause Play: At Ze Bar
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