Virtual Unreality

Worlds collide at the Gershman Y.

by Shaun Brady

[ exhibit ]

Invented: (un)Realities in Two Parts | Opening reception Thu., April 23, 6-8 p.m., exhibit through Aug. 7, Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad St., 215-238-1236, voxpopuligallery.org

Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori introduced the concept of the "uncanny valley" in 1970, but it's grown increasingly relevant as real-world androids and CGI actors become ever more dominant in our lives. The idea is that as representations of humanity approach realism, they eventually hit a point where actual humans get a bit too creeped out to accept them. Video artist Kara Crombie cited that idea in reference to her "utopic and unsettling" CG-altered suburban landscapes (pictured), one of the collisions of reality and representation that make up Vox Populi's exhibition "Invented (un)Realities in Two Parts."

The show, curated by Julianna Foster and Josh Rickards, built on themes running through member artists' work. It is split into two halves, the first concentrating on the natural world, the second on the man-made, but both dealing with ideas of imaginary landscapes and environments.

These two worlds constantly impinge upon each other, as do their artistic counterparts. "I definitely think of architecture as the absence or the squashing of nature," says Leah Bailis, who is collaborating with James Johnson on a scale model house whose interior and exterior don't always agree. "The entire surface of the Earth is a landscape," Johnson adds. "We've manipulated it so much that it's a human creation at this point. There's no place that's untouched."

Among the pieces included, Kate Stewart's site-specific mural expands on that idea with a post-apocalyptic vision of willow branches winding around hand mixers and empty frames, a commingling of the domestic and the natural that posits the remnants of a vanquished humanity. Amy Adams' video piece is a collage of low-res depictions of Dutch maritime painters Willem van de Velde the Younger and Elder, several steps removed from their natural source with the intervention of the degraded image. These pieces have been undertaken at a time when reality has become mired in its own representation, with the Internet and virtual realities offering an invented realm separate from the "real world."

As executive director Andrew Suggs points out, "The Internet has totally changed the way we conceive of not only real spaces and nature, but also representations of them. I think that all the work has some relationship to that, even if it's somewhat tangential. In the past, photography and even, initially, painting had a huge impact on the way that we conceived of the real world, so it follows in that tradition. The digital might be a new sublime because it represents this endless possibility. There's kind of a flirting with digital technologies that's both hopeful and a little bit scared. But the sublime traditionally represents something that is both awe-inspiring but can also be frightful or unruly, and to think about how technology might be taking the place of that in our minds instead of nature is kind of interesting."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)