Fall go-round, round 2

By roberta

September 10, 2009   ·   4 Comments

Friday I went to the Vox building with Cate and a few of my St. Joseph’s students.  We were early and so missed the huge crowds which was good for seeing the art.  This is in no way a comprehensive review of the many shows on view but it seemed that revolutions were the recurring theme of the evening.

Nick Paparone's installation at Vox Populi with the revolving eyeball/wrecking ball in the center

With Nick Paparone’s evil eyeball circling maniacally via a little motor in his frat boy sex, beer and hangover room installation, the revolutionary air was set at Vox. Brent Wahl’s quiet revolving zoetrope, a tinfoil mini landscape on a huge turntable that was captured by video and thrown up on the wall as a travelling landscape of the mind echoed the revolving nature of life.  The piece is lovely.

Brent Wahl's revolving tabletop landscape

Brent Wahl's revolving piece projected on the wall.

Onions, sliced in half and and dipped in rainbow-colored dyes were odiferous circles at Copy in Constance Mensh’s installation.  Mensh photographed herself in situ working with the aggressive vegetables.  Here she is crying her eyes out; there she is looking serene and like she’s done battle; here she is, frock covered in a mess of dye.

Constance Mensch, in a photograph, looking like Nigella Lawson having a bad day in the kitchen. Copy Gallery

Onions make us cry.  But so do breakups, sad movies, pretty rainbows.  Many things make us cry.  Good food can make people cry.  Some of Mensh’s photos — where she is standing behind a table laid with her onions in dye baths — have a wacky Food Network ambiance, like out-takes from a Nigella Lawson show where something went wrong.

Reading viaduct seen from the 6th floor of 319A N. 11th St. High line Philly anyone?

Much more to see in this building, from Alex Paik’s new tiny drawings at Tiger to Victorian-esque photographs by Margaux Kent at Jeffrey Stockbridge and, up on 6, a nice view of the Reading Viaduct that one day might just be the Philadelphia High Line (any funders may now please step forward).

I will put in links later (sorry) going to ICA now.

Tags: brent wahl, constance mensch, copy gallery, nick paparone, reading viaduct, vox populi

Readers Comments (4)