First Friday Focus

Lori Hill's First Friday Hit List

by Lori Hill

Wexler Gallery Infiltrator, by Dana Major Kanovitz, paper pulp, oil paint, human and horse hair, mixed media, 2009

Marginal Utility

There's a theory that our bodies — our muscles and flesh — retain not only any physical trauma we may have suffered, but the emotional traumas, as well. People undergo intensive massage therapy to release these entrenched tensions and, they say, experience overwhelming relief that can bring them to tears as they recall experiences and let go of distress. Hadassa Goldvicht explores how global traumas, such as war and fear, inhabit our bodies. Goldvicht, a Jerusalem-based video and performance artist, presents her findings in "Schlaf (sleep)," the inaugural installation at Marginal Utility. Sharing space with Basekamp, Marginal Utility is a nonprofit dedicated to the work of local and international artists. Goldvicht believes these memories become as physical to us as our DNA, that our bodies integrate with the emotions and translate them from generation to generation. Her installation will encourage visitors to lie down in beds and view video and sound works meant to depict dream imagery of WWII survivors and the ways these events take root in us physically. Goldvicht wants to evoke a pre-sleep yet conscious state so that viewers are relaxed and willing to let go, but completely aware of what they are experiencing. It is about survival, dreaming and working through our memories. Unnerving? Maybe. Worth a look? Surely. Opening reception Thu., Sept. 3, 6-8 p.m., also open Fri., Sept. 4, 5-8 p.m., runs through Oct. 25, 723 Chestnut St., 2nd floor, 917-355-4487, marginalutility.org.

Wexler Gallery

Speaking of the body as receptacle, Sienna Freeman curates a show for Wexler this month that espouses just that idea: Our physical selves are merely a vessel, organic temporary storage for our psyches while we walk the Earth. "The Self & Beyond," featuring the work of Kiki Smith, Dana Major Kanovitz, Monica Cook and Melanie Bilenker, explores a series of dualities: internal/external, physical/spiritual, private/public, cognizant/unaware. Kiki Smith may be the heavy-hitter bait here, but savvy fish will stay for Kanovitz's wholly original life-size sculptures (pictured). Her portraits of women — nude, wary and strangely appended with animal characteristics (fur, claws) — will surely steal the show. That's not to say Cook's arresting self-portraits and Bilenker's neo-Victorian jewelry pieces are anything to sneeze at. Cook's work addresses the show's themes by balancing corporeal urgency with depth of feeling, while Bilenker stunningly creates line drawings out of her own hair, depicting small moments from her life. Smith's mother to them all, but each of these women are innovators in her own right. Bonus: Opening night will feature Kanovitz in a performance piece in which the audience will have the chance to change one of the artworks; it's called "Alter Piece." Get it? We love puns. Opening reception, Fri., Sept. 4, 5-8 p.m., runs through Oct. 31, 201 N. Third St., 215-923-7030, wexlergallery.com.

(l_hill@citypaper.net)