At Mass Moca, A Working Roller Coaster Adds Gravity To Its New Installation

MASS MoCA in North Adams has been around long enough that after an installation vacates Building 5, we’re trained to wonder what will dazzle us next. We’ve craned our necks for hours gazing up at artist Xu Bing’s two monumental phoenixes in flight; navigated our way through innumerable glittering lawn ornaments hung low from the ceiling in Nick Cave’s “Until”; and followed Trenton Doyle Hancock’s rainbow-colored path to step inside his giant mound sculptures in his “Mind of the Mound” installation. Despite the deeper meanings behind each of these installations, the 250,000-square-foot gallery can feel like a hall of wonders.

On Friday, Oct. 28, Gallery 5 welcomes Los Angeles-based artist EJ Hill and his “Brake Run Helix” exhibition, which includes his own monument to joy — a working roller coaster. Hill’s first solo museum exhibit — and largest exhibition to date — incorporates freestanding sculptures, paintings, and a stage for performances. The roller coaster, with its single-person cart powered by gravity, will run on 250 yards of pink metal track in a figure-eight pattern. (Trained operators and safety protocols will be in place.) Benches will be set up for people to watch as they would at an amusement park. (You'll need to sign up to get your turn on the roller coaster.)

“As you walk into Building 5, the first half will be a new series of Hill’s sculptures that he worked with our team to create,” says Alexandra Foradas, the curator for this show. The sculptures, taking up the first half of the space, are made largely out of reused materials, referencing the materiality of backyard roller coasters. The back half will be devoted to the roller coaster. Accessed from the mezzanine level, it’ll send riders down to a stage, “like a pink ribbon,” Foradas says. The MASS MoCA team worked with an engineering firm on the structure and has been installing it for the last couple of weeks.

EJ Hill, A Monumental Offering of Potential Energy, 2016. Wood, LED Neon Flex, and durational performance. The Studio Museum in Harlem. Photo: Adam Reich

Roller coasters have been a recurring theme in Hill’s latest works, and represent an evolution of his approach to art. As a master’s degree candidate at UCLA, he developed as an endurance and performance artist, eventually incorporating roller coaster themes in his work. At the Venice Biennial in 2017, he created a wooden roller coaster sculpture and walked the tracks high above the ground. More recently, though, he’s been pivoting away from the focus on himself and his emotionally, physically taxing and even dangerous performance pieces.

In “Brake Run Helix,” Hill sees the roller coaster itself as a performance, with the people watching included as part of the production.

Speaking at the Radcliffe Institute in 2019, Hill explained his affinity with roller coasters. “For a very long time, since childhood, they [roller coasters] just brought me so much joy,” he said.

And yet, the ride and amusement parks have a less delightful history that Hill references in this exhibition. It wasn’t so long ago that people of color were not allowed in amusement parks, beaches, pool, ice skating rinks. Leisure spaces became the site of activism.

“After the passage of the Civil Rights Act, amusement parks were privatized and moved outside of cities,” Foradas says. “They became less accessible, or moved from per-ride fees. They established an entrance fee model, which was higher.” It’s not lost to her or Hill that there’s a parallel between amusement parks and museums. “I’m thrilled EJ has trusted us with this exhibition,” she says.

EJ Hill, Peril, 2020. Photo: Ruben Diaz

MASS MoCA has commissioned a suite of paintings from Hill to accompany “Brake Run Helix” — a meditation on the form and function of roller coasters. The pale pink images with their allusion to flowers reflect a softer side to the roller coaster imagery.

Scheduled to run through January 2024, this is one of this gallery’s lengthiest exhibitions, and will include pop-up programs.

“So much of the exhibition work is completed by visitors and their engagement with it,” Foradas says. “We want to know what it means to people. A longer exhibition gives us more time with new commissions and does better service for us and the public.”

In a recent article in The New York Times, Hill underscores his quest to encourage his viewers to find their own meaning in the installation. “There are things that I believe you have to feel to understand,” he says. “Certain ideas can be communicated via language and land really well; other things you have to feel in your gut.”

What better connection to your gut than through a roller coaster ride?

EJ Hill: “Brake Run Helix”
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
October 28, 2022 – January, 2024