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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Smarter/Faster/Higher

We had an opening on Friday for the much anticipated Smarter/Faster/Higher: Works by Elizabeth Keithline. An amazing exhibition featuring woven wire sculptures of human figures in an array of poses that feel like 3-D gestural drawings.

Using a wire weaving technique, that she has employed since 1990, and in collaboration with her husband Jeff, Keithline has created an installation of full-scale woven wire human beings and wire trees. Some of the figures are frozen in a crawl, some in a walk, and some in a run as they spread out across the gallery. The figures merge upon a ‘pool’ of monitors placed on the floor in the center of the room. The monitors depict an image of a wire figure that constantly divides, repeating over and over the idea of population and progress through replication.

Human beings are biologically programmed to evolve – to become “Smarter/Faster/Higher”. Technology has given us new tools with which to accomplish this end. We can potentially increase our mental capacity, and thus our ability to survive, simply by opening up a laptop. Keithline observes that the technological system we have created, whose principle strength is replication, mirrors the natural world.
Like Narcissus, one of the figures gazes into the pool, absorbed by the sight of his own image. Technology presents an opportunity for self-reflection and the potential for self-absorption. Does it become an obstacle, a springboard, or both?

This exhibition is a must see! It will be up through January 16, 2011 so there is plenty of time to see it more than once!