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ART REVIEW
bv LIZZIE Zl’CKER SALTZ
TRAVELS WITH LIZZIE
On my travels this summer I have seen some innovative
and spectacular artworks that I was so moved by that I
wanted to share my excitement with my fellow Athenian
art lovers. A couple of my favorites:
Orlando: The art exhibit at SIGGRAPH ‘98 — the 25th
International Conference on Computer Graphics and
Interactive Techniques — overflowed with aesthetic-tech
nological wonders, but none punched my buttons as
hard as the interactive installation, Project Paradise. You
entered one of two small silver booths where a phone sat
ringing on a shelf in front of a screen. Pick it up and a live
video feed sputters on. And there stands your very own
Cyber-Adam or Cyber-Eve in a blindingly bright plastic
Garden of Eden, dressed only in a shiny remote-control
arm sheath and wrist-mounted camera. Timidly you
press arrow buttons on the phone’s modified keypad
which controls “your” arm.
“Project Paradise" by the Center for MetaHuman Exploration,
video still, 1998, SIGGRAPH '98, Grtando. FL
You ind yourself “stroking” either a sultry dark-haired
hunk or a wide-eyed buttercup-breasted blonde.
Unnerved, it occurs to you that not only are you using a
complete stranger’s body to have not-so-intimate-inti-
mate relations with another stranger, but that you are
simultaneously having once-removed relations with your
anonymous counterpart in the other booth! Their sex
remains unknown to you, and as the sex of the body you
were assigned to “caress” was assigned by chance, homo-
hetero issues loom large.
As you get braver you notice how the actor transforms
your jerky, directional inputs into sensual fondlings. As
you slide your remote-hand down the stranger’s torso
and tickle his pubic hair, you wonder just who is control
ling whom? In one coy swoop these artists have turned
you into a patronizer of a 21st-century peep show, plung
ing you into a queasy swampland of sexual ethics, mining
every pathetic anti-intimate Virtual-Playmate strand of
our sick lonely culture, implicating you, as a media con
sumer, in institutions like prostitution. Therein lies the
piece’s most provocative punch. Check it out yourself at
www.ri.cmu.edu/metahuman. Another eye-opener was
MIT Media Lab’s meditative Stream of Consciousness
installation (by David Small and UGA alum Tom White)
whose projected words flowed through actual running
water, breaking up and reforming into related words
drawn from an enormous database as you “touched”
them via a responsive soft bladder interface. There’s so
much more: see www.siggraph.org/s98/conference/art.
Chelsea, NYC: Speaking of MIT, Arthur Ganson, an
artist-in-residence there and inventor of the popular toy
Toobers and Zots, had his debut NYC show extended this
summer amid the cheers of an artworld weary with cold
technophilic abjection. These 19 kinematic constructs
constitute a groundbreaking reprise of optimistic ‘60s
machine-art, forged in self-conscious homage to Ganson’s
hero Tinguely. His pieces vibrate and whirl into spasms of
such grace and poignancy that a glance at one is like
snorting a Gogol novella.
Imagine a wire mounted row of eggshell-halves that
clack up against each other as you turn a wee crank, cre
ating a curiously gut-wrenching
percussive symphony. Or a
wishbone ploddingly and
pathetically pivoting itself,
one bone-leg at a time to
the end of a narrow
track. Or insect-like
metal shafts tipped
with yellow wooden
shapes pivoting
around decoratively
until — BOOOM —
the yellow tips coalesce
for an nanosecond to form a
perfect straight-backed wood
en chair. (Videos of these last
two pieces are on the web: . chju Watchjng BaU - by Althll , Canson
riccomaresca.com/ganson). u x 26 x 8, steel wue. doll head, ball,
Ganson reveals our soul 1996 - R 'cco/Maresca Gallery, NYC
in the machine, uncannily mimicking the animate dance
of life. Gallery attendees crossed their arms in erotic
alarm in front of a squat perpetually ejaculating shock
absorber, coating and re-coating itself with a deep layer
of lustrous machine grease. Metal mesh inchworms wig
gle and squirm amid a field of blue feather boas in
response to how they are wheeled around the gallery on
a cart. A kewpie doll head jammed onto a shaft perfectly
tracks the movements of a small red ball in such a keen
imitation of a baby’s motions that its visible welded work
ings make the illusion all the more magical. This poet of
motion will surely crop up in major museums’ shows
soon. ©
ART PATROL
by MELISSA LINK
• The Georgia National Fair
offers nearly $17,000 awards to fine
and craft artists in all media. Entry
deadline is September 5; the shows
take place October 9-18. Call (800)
987-3247 for guidelines and an entry
form.
• “Common Ground” is an exhibit
from the American Print Alliance
on display through August 20 at the
Lamar Dodd School of Art
• On Wednesday, August 12, at 7:30
p.m., the GMOA will screen the
“Best of the Northwest Film and
Video Festival.” The GMOA pre
sents “Animated Worlds,” an
evening of animated films ranging
from the sublime to the surreal on
Wednesday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Admission to each event is $3.
• An update on the uprooting of
Watkinsville's Lowery Gallery: The
latest word from Robert Lowery is that
he’s found a new studio and gallery
space in downtown Athens! The
building, located right behind A;hens
Fly Fishing on Broad Street, will also
house studio space for a handful of
hard-working local artists. We'll keep
you posted on plans for a grand
opening.
• Figurative paintings by Caroline
Higgs and twig, feather, and ink
drawings by Juan Stacey are up at
Jittery Joe’s (Caroline also has
work up at The Winery); Color pho
tos by Mary Anne Louise and con
structions by Meredith Byrne are
hanging at The Grit through August
22; ‘Seven Athens Artists!" features
work by Elizabeth Barton, Jill
Biskin, Nisa Blackmon, Mary
Engel, Annette Hatton, Susan
Nees and Mary Porter at Aurum
Studios through the end of the
month; paintings by Lucy Calhoun
are upstairs at the Athens Brewing
Company
• The Monroe Art Guild is also
offering classes in ceramics and
figure drawing throughout the
month of August. A ceramics ebss
takes place on August 18 from 6:30-
8:30 p.m.; charcoal figure drawing
classes are heid August 17 and
August 24 from 2-4 p.m. Fees are
$15 per session and may be attended
independently or as a series. Call
(770) 207-8937 to preregister.
• UGA BFA sculptor Wendy Taylor
and MFA painter Daniel Reidy have
work on exhibit at Clayton Street
Gallery through August 15.
• Madison, Ga. artist Vic Steele
has an exhibit in the Comer Gallery
of the Madison Art Guild in
Madison showing Saturday, August
8, and Sunday, August 9. Call 342-
4958 for more inh
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AUGUST 12, 1998 FLAGPOLE □