Performing Arts Center or Death Star

The thing Brent is working on up here in Troy is pretty incredible- I saw it today with my own eyes and it still feels unreal! It is still in a testing phase so I can't really share too much of what the end result will be but let's just say that it will be awesome and have elements of a magic television. Yup. WHAT?! Amazing! While running errands today I had time to wander around the current exhibition in the lobby of EMPAC! At first the pieces didn't seem to stand out mainly due to the overwhelming architecture of the building (pictured) but, upon further inspection, the show is just jaw dropping!

The exhibit is called Uncertain Spectator and plays on the idea of voyeurism and tension in our fear driven culture. One piece, actually called FEAR, is made of a circle of chairs that when approached begin to hiss, the table in their center starts to emit tiny red lights, making you feel like an intruder and loaded with questions about what that means. Kate Gilmore (who I've admired for years as one of like 3 female artists making feminist work that doesn't suck) has her video piece Main Squeeze on display which shows her trying to pass through a narrow enclosure in fancy dress, struggling as we watch unable to help yet transfixed by, I don't even know by what..pure anticipation & hope?

The other piece I loved I walked by twice before investigating, it looked like a bunch of quarters encased on a museum pedestal but, of course, it wasn't! It was a bunch of quarters hollowed out with tiny switchblades hidden inside. I don't think I've ever seen a piece of art so small and so rife with meaning! All of this wonderful art being in the lobby of this insane building made me even more excited about Brent's residency here but who wouldn't be...did I mention MAGIC TELEVISIONS!