Jason Foumberg

As you enter Max King Cap's "video opera" installation, a booming voice from a darkened corner spouts an abstruse narrative full of symbols and cryptograms. The cast of characters, represented by such things as a three-tiered cake and a crown, and the abstract story about sin and the institution of religion bear all the markings of an allegory or moral lesson. Even if the tale may be difficult to access, the sculptural installation, or the stage set, is wholly impressive and enthralling. The relationship of the objects to each other and to their surroundings posit a narrative all their own. A hollow church structure hangs mid-air and upside-down. Beneath it, its house-shaped shadow appears like a grave strewn with flowers. Is the structure a vision of resurrection or is it a floundering and dying thing? Subjective and personal revelations emerge from the murky black lake and calmly solidify as playful mutations of nature. Although the symbolic language here has been fully articulated by Max King Cap, we must necessarily interact with the space, and in doing so we break the fourth wall such that the installation absorbs us.

Max King Cap shows at Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 South Cornell Avenue, (773)324-5520, through April 8. (2007-02-20)

Also by Jason Foumberg

Portrait of the Artist
Like any good (or great) Minimalist work of art, Fred Sandback's sculptures emit an air of ease; they're easy on the eyes, quite possibly easily made, and once you "get it," easily enjoyed
(2007-01-30)

Tip of the Week
Brooklyn-based Luke Stettner comes out on top of this three-person exhibition at duchess gallery. Through four discrete works, Stettner charts a conceptually cohesive narrative of the inaccessibility of communication and the ghost chance of hope's renewal
(2007-01-30)

Portrait of the Artist
Deb Sokolow, a 32-year-old artist from California who lives and works in Chicago, combines text and image in storyboards that unfold left to right through space
(2006-12-19)

Tip of the Week
The only thing special about the content of Kim Dorland's paintings--teenagers hanging out in derelict places--is that it acts as the impetus for the transfiguration of gooey paint
(2006-12-19)

Portrait of an Artist
(2006-12-12)

Tip of the Week
(2006-11-07)

Tip of the Week
(2006-10-10)

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