23 February 2006
ART: These Cool Light Boxes
Dateline: Over There Along The Urban Industrial Corridor
We drove over to Linda Warren Gallery last Friday night. Our buddy and a couple other art freaks were doing a performance piece – a drums, guitar and laptop trio. Linda Warren has that most rare trait in an art gallery owner – taste. Who gave her the right to have good taste? At any rate, the gallery has pulled some nice shows together lately.
Before the boys started playing I bummed a beer and had a look at the new art on the walls. In the back there were these real nice light boxes hung up. They were handmade wood, about the size of a small birdhouse. Into them you could peer and see through tricks of a mirror and magnifying glass, grainy gnarls of wood and multi colored eyeballs. Two circles were cut out in front into which you could peer. These holes were filled with magnifying glasses. The lenses enlarged an image of a mirror, which was set in the box at an angle. The mirror reflected various materials through holes cut out of the sides of the light box. Does that make sense? Anyway, they struck a nice crafty tone without being precious. A little Joseph Cornell, a little penny arcade.
After my buddy and his fiends started playing, these two lesbians who have a two-person dance troupe arrived and began dancing to the music. As I watched a question came to me – if sexy and strange women do a very bendy but spirited interpretive dance to music made by down home art freaks thrashing about, is it art?
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We drove over to Linda Warren Gallery last Friday night. Our buddy and a couple other art freaks were doing a performance piece – a drums, guitar and laptop trio. Linda Warren has that most rare trait in an art gallery owner – taste. Who gave her the right to have good taste? At any rate, the gallery has pulled some nice shows together lately.
Before the boys started playing I bummed a beer and had a look at the new art on the walls. In the back there were these real nice light boxes hung up. They were handmade wood, about the size of a small birdhouse. Into them you could peer and see through tricks of a mirror and magnifying glass, grainy gnarls of wood and multi colored eyeballs. Two circles were cut out in front into which you could peer. These holes were filled with magnifying glasses. The lenses enlarged an image of a mirror, which was set in the box at an angle. The mirror reflected various materials through holes cut out of the sides of the light box. Does that make sense? Anyway, they struck a nice crafty tone without being precious. A little Joseph Cornell, a little penny arcade.
After my buddy and his fiends started playing, these two lesbians who have a two-person dance troupe arrived and began dancing to the music. As I watched a question came to me – if sexy and strange women do a very bendy but spirited interpretive dance to music made by down home art freaks thrashing about, is it art?
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