Artshorts |
Squeaky Wheel Hits Young Adulthoodby Cynnie Gaasch |
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Squeaky Wheel’s opening of their new space was celebrated last Thursday night with a members’ meeting and opening reception for two multimedia installations by Courtney Grim and Tammy Rene Brackett. Clean and “corporate” feeling, this new space at 712 Main Street is probably an indication that Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resources, at 20 years old, is moving into their young adult phase.
Courtney Grim’s “I Spy Myself” is the next piece in this artist’s preoccupation with the loss of privacy. Previously, her work has involved video representations of peepholes into hotel rooms. This piece shows us that the eradication of invisibility permeates our surroundings. Two videos captured on four-channel surveillance cameras are projected onto the main wall of the space. The videos barely move and disappear into the exhibition of black and white prints on the adjacent walls. It is hard to tell what exactly is going on in the photographs. Are we looking at a security camera, or is it looking at us? Grim gives us unusual angles of familiar areas—the HSBC Arena from the Skyway, General Mills, Channel 7 straight on, and empty parking lots. There are some cameras to be spied in these images, and the flickering, quiet movement of the video makes it clear just how invisible the lurking eyes of government, private and corporate lenses are.
“(In)formation” by Tammy Rene Brackett uses the experimentation and remapping of the human genome as inspiration for a sound and video installation. The sound portrays the rhythms and layering of human patterns. The video is a bit perplexing, as the layers and randomness seem to obliterate all pattern or design. Maybe the artist is describing a fear of loss of life as it is. It is kind of hard to tell what the intention is with the video, but the sound and image together do make for an appealing meditative environment.
Next week, Ishmael Klein, Squeaky Wheel’s 2005 National Endowment for the Arts Digital Filmmaker in Residence, will screen the work she has made while in Buffalo on Friday, October 21 at 8pm.
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