The Vitreous: Of Eyes and Optics

What you see isn’t always what you get at Klein Art Gallery. 


By Roberta Fallon 
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 11, 2009

The eyes have it: Sean Hovendick’s "Peep Show" on display at Esther M. Klein Art Gallery.

Esther M. Klein Gallery, situated in the University City Science Center, has a mission to merge art, engineering and science while serving the public. Its latest exhibit, “The Vitreous: Of Eyes & Optics,” hits the mark. The national juried show of 22 artists is a jaunty group exhibition with interactive art, optical trickery and many pieces that get you thinking about the slippery nature of sight. The show is homey enough for the average viewer and challenging enough for those who demand the deepest concepts in their art. 


“Vitreous” is not afraid to be fun. But the robotics, spinning disks and interactive video pieces go well beyond the arcade and propel thoughts about social issues—such as the place of robotics in our lives, the ubiquity of surveillance cameras and the fact that regardless of what is before us, your eye and mind will see things one way and I may see things another.


No piece made me doubt my eyes more than Cynthia Greig’s C-print, Representation no.65 (Fan) . The photo of a simple white electric fan shot in a white space is so mundane you might not stop to contemplate. Look closer and you see that there’s something faux about the fan. It looks flat and like a cardboard cutout. Maybe the artist constructed a faux fan and photographed it, à la Thomas Demand, the German artist who builds and then photographs trompe l’oeil sculptures. But no. What Greig does is simpler. 


She takes a real object (a fan, a portable television) and paints it white, then she draws the edges and details on the object with a pencil and takes a photograph. What results is a hybrid—a photo of a sculpture that is also a drawing. The work is lovely and makes you consider the humble fan anew.


David Bowen’s Infrared Drawing Device is a small wall-mounted robot attached to a piece of paper on the wall. The robot is mildly interesting when at rest but wave a hand near the motion sensors and the piece jolts to life, its robotic arm making a skittery charcoal line across the paper. Move your hand gently and get a calm response from the robot; move your hand fast and the robot will buck and seize. You are Dr. Frankenstein and you have control over this techno-creature.


Through Sept. 5. Free. Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, 3600 Market St. 215.966.6188. kleinartgallery.org

 

In Sean Hovendick’s Peep Show , on the other hand, you’re the victim as your image is caught by a camera embedded in the wall and broadcast—fragmented in a color video kaleidoscope—on a monitor above. Whether you want to participate or not, you’re part of this surveillance-art piece.


Nearby, Candace Karch’s shiny X-ray images—decorated with pastel tattoolike markings—are tribal and medical, and Lee Arnold’s flash animation of color fields embedded in black and white photos is mesmerizing. Wade von Kramm’s Self Portrait , a crude plaster figure that casts a sophisticated shadow, demonstrates the importance of light in perception. ■


For more on the Philadelphia art scene go to theartblog.org


“The Vitreous: Of Eyes & Optics.”

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