Newspaper Article

CONTROLLED CHAOS ; DECORDOVA ANNUAL OFFERS AN ELEGANT TORRENT OF IDEAS

McQuaid, Cate

2006

Overview

Christopher Gray's clever \"This Yellow Object\" video uses theatrical improvisation to incisively spoof the often ridiculously ponderous work of interpreting art. The artist circles a yellow sculpture earnestly spouting whatever associations come to mind, such as \"King Midas turned to gold for touching himself.\" Like Gray's piece, \"Confined Reflections\" won't shut up. Gretchen Skogerson and Garth Zeglin's installation is the least realized work in the show. The mirrored domes typically used to hide surveillance cameras here mask speakers. Walk past, and a dome starts chatting you up: \"Have you ever fallen out of love? I wish I could tell you how much it hurts.\" Though the device of a whispering mirror is enticing, the monologues echo those of the worst kind of egocentric seatmates on a trans-Atlantic flight. Hepler, Johnson, and Gregory Miguel Gomez pare information down into lean visual poetry. Gomez's 32-foot-tall bronze sculpture \"Bad Equilibrium\" depicts a narrow U-shaped tube. It looks as if a liquid has been poured into the tube, and the liquid rises higher on the right than on the left. The top of the U is higher on the left than on the right. \"Bad Equilibrium\" conveys something slippery, yet it's done with such simple eloquence, you could sit for a long time, just looking at it.

• Publisher: Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC
• Subject: Art exhibits / Gray, Christopher / Hepler, Anna / Ross, Alexander / Suzuki, Naoe / Swarts, Matthew / Various artists / Visual artists