Michael Workman

It's easy to mistake the new Garden Fresh space in Lakeview for an abandoned building that this art group just set up shop in.

Windows are dry-walled over and sealed, a Remington propane heater roars in the back corner, tongue of blue-hot flame licking the edges of a metal tube. Patrons pour mulled wine into plastic cups from two black airpots on a shabby desk nearby, smoke cigarettes, pick up title lists off a stack.

Walk into the front room, however, and San Jose-based artist Shannon Wright's sculptures and video wall projections transcend their humble surroundings. Beneath a pair of pan lights sits "Ride," a laser-cut white model made of acrylic, polystyrene, urethane and fiberglass on a gray pedestal. At 45 x 48 x 47 inches, it's a pretty sizeable toy. A hobby-store horse is harnessed to a high central winch that rises to join a square, high-stilted structure that houses a huge wheel. In theory, the horse marches in a circle, turning the winch that then turns the wheel horizontally. This pronged wheel forces the rotation of a cylinder attached to a system of rods that rise up through a platform to raise and lower a saddle ride that resembles those seen in country and western bars.

Sound confusing? Of the sculpture, one viewer remarked that it was "a very DaVinci-looking invention," and that's pretty close. But Wright was actually thinking more of French philosopher Denis Diderot. Wright found her inspiration among the sketches that explain how to cast bells and construct furnaces in Diderot's "Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry." For those unfamiliar with Diderot's drawings, Wright has installed a video animation of the equestrian-driven device in motion. Essentially, the whole mechanism fuels a saddle ride. Aesthetically, however, the platform that the saddle ride sits upon, fronted by a 25-step staircase, resembles a gallows, lending the whole sculpture a sense of fatal utility.

"I'm not an engineer," says Wright. "I piddle for months making prototypes. For me, this is a way to realize ideas quicker." Ultimately, her machines exist for no other purpose than a desire on the part of the artist to share the joy of invention. Sometimes, that's just not enough, however. The flash-animated projection reads like a promotional video not unlike the widely shown video of the Mars rover in operation. Viewers are directed to a pointlessly close examination of the machine's individual parts, perhaps in appreciation of their elegant design. It starts out with a full-length shot from upper left that cuts to a panning shot of the still cylinder, then a medium-length silhouette of the horse passing before the lens, and then a shot of the wheel in perfectly symmetrical motion. The shot cuts a few times between the turning cylinder and the bobbing saddle, then starts all over again. Dry and uncommunicative, Wright's other DVD projections in the installation, "Lesson" and "Perfect Form," are stronger. Using a similar device, the latter projection depicts a man simultaneously patting his head and rubbing his belly. It may be a one-liner, but at least it's amusing.

Significantly, Wright didn't render the flash animations herself: they were done in collaboration with Frank Pichel and Jason Lust, and she received help with making the model in AutoCAD from Warren Tamashiro. This is worth mentioning since, as Wright puts it, she's "tired of being lumped in with kinetic artists or compared to an engineer." But that may be inevitable. As with any engineering project, the finished structure is only as good as the quality of the collaboration.

Female Figures

"Feminine Form," opening this weekend at Pilsen's Fleur Gallery, examines the female figure in a variety of media, including oil paint, mixed media and a 2-foot fused quilt, "Erehwon," by School of the Art Institute MFA student Ai Kijima. Much of the work takes as its starting point gender commerce, with fashion accessories such as lipstick, girdles and high-heeled shoes all making appearances. Lorraine Peltz's painting stands out amidst work by less-established artists Molly Carter and Kathleen Vojta. Her oil on canvas "Got Lucky" depicts three pairs of empty shoes arranged provocatively against a skin-tone background, a silent paean to the strength of feminine absence.

Shannon Wright shows at Garden Fresh, 3039 North Lincoln, (773)837-9809, through February 21. "Feminine Form" shows at Fleur Gallery, 1833 South Halsted Street, (312)421-8929, through February 13.

(2004-01-13)

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