Kevin Dacey provides a softer approach to questioning the real with spatially adventurous photographs of museum spaces. The artifacts on display are potentially of interest but are relegated as a component of the totality of reflective glass cases. The meditative space of the gallery is fed back into a hall of mirrors reflecting the cultural past and psychological present.
Jewel Rechsteiner’s “Runoff” performance installation consists of buckets in a circle on the floor. Each bucket is stylishly imprinted with a date and time marking the capture of samples of Portland’s sewage runoff with a little saliva thrown in for good measure. The viewer peers down into each one to see different examples of bacterial growth. This biological experiment creates, somewhat literally, mandalas of shit that reveal our relationship of exchange with nature and its beautiful complexity. We are forced to reconcile the body as membrane and cast our intellectual and cultural pursuits in new light.
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Ian Paige: ianpaige@gmail.com
Thesis Exhibition for Studio Arts MFA Students | at Institute for Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Porteous Bldg, 522 Congress St, in Portland | Through May 25 | 207.879.5742
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