I frequently see lengthy art videos like this and I've come to believe that nobody (besides the artists themselves) ever watches them in their entirety. I used to make valiant efforts to sit through them, but I've (mostly) stopped because I was missing the point. These are conceptual exercises. To make the idea resonate, it's crucial that the artist pursue the idea to its full conclusion. But once you get the point (usually after a few minutes), you don't need to watch any more because it's the thought that counts.
And then there's the showstopper: Kelly Heaton's The Surrogate (2002-2003), a furry red coat made from 64 skinned Tickle Me Elmo dolls. Inside it's filled with wires making it resemble a suicide bomber's coat. It's actually all the vibrating tickle devices attached to a corset-like structure around what would be the wearer's belly and thighs. The curators explain: "Heaton exposes the wildly popular Tickle Me Elmo to be no more than a laughing vibrator with fur, implicating the marketing of animatronic play with the cybernetic arousals of 'teledildonics.' " Heaton touches on adult and child sensuality/sexuality, but it's more a naughty joke than an exposé. Still, it's a memorably good joke.
Read Greg's blog at gregcookland.com/journal.
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"I want to create a place where people can take a little vacation from reality," Brooklyn artist Kirsten Hassenfeld has said. "I'm interested in going to a place where there is no want, only endless plenty." In "Recent Sculpture," her exhibit at Brown University's Bell Gallery (64 College Street, Providence, through November 1), she succeeds magnificently.
- Photos: Kirsten Hassenfeld at Bell Gallery
Photos from Hassenfeld's show at the Bell Gallery
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In Onne van der Wal's sailing photos, it seems the weather is always balmy and the golden sun always setting. The Jamestown resident's exhibit at Moses Brown School's Krause Gallery (250 Lloyd Avenue, Providence, through October 2) depicts a world that's forever at its endless summer, can't-get-any-better-than-this peak.
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This is the fifth season of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theater, and the three productions are quite a delightful array of comedies-in-the-works, all dealing with social survival. The plays being workshopped include an existential examination from a canine point of view.
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