Everyday Imaginary

Jan. 15-March 21, free, Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th St., 215-898-7108, icaphila.org.

by Shaun Brady

visual art

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Animation techniques offer filmmakers the option of taking whatever flights of fancy their imaginations can conjure, no matter how fantastic. The video works in the Institute of Contemporary Art's new exhibition, "Everyday Imaginary," however, remain tethered to a recognizable reality even as they breathe into it strange new life. The second collection of the ICA's wide-ranging three-part examination of contemporary video work, "Video Art: Replay," takes the idea of the "social imaginary" as its focus, encompassing, curator Lucy Gallun says, "our nationhood, our cultural identity, our political affiliations. Though these conceptions are constructions (and therefore imaginary), they have very real effects on our lived experience." The approach often brings a childlike playfulness to modern obsessions, marrying tragedy and neuroses with whimsy. Thus Rob Carter finds a self-constructing cityscape in Metropolis, as cutout skyscrapers close in on empty fields like a pop-up book of eminent domain; or how the history of American conflict is told against fractured puzzle-piece landscapes in Martha Colburn's Triumph of the Wild. Aurélien Froment's Théâtre de Poche (pictured) presents the very process of memory as sleight of hand, as a magician produces still images from his coat pockets and sets them to float in front of our eyes, producing a conjuring act full of cultural snapshots.

Jan. 15-March 21, free, Institute of Contemporary Art, 118 S. 36th St., 215-898-7108, icaphila.org.