Hysterical Machines at Wood Street Galleries

Bill Vorn's "Red Light" (2005)
currently on view at Wood Street Galleries

For a review I'm working on for Sculpture Magazine, I went to see Wood Street Galleries' recently opened, full-gallery installations, collectively titled Hysterical Machines. These robotic installations were created by Bill Vorn.  I'll have to go back....while the lights show and sounds were pretty spectacular on the third floor, the hydraulic machines seen hanging in the picture at left were not moving, and the second-floor gallery was not accessible via the elevator.

Earlier this morning, at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, I also got a chance to see Sung Rok Choi's series, Call of Duty: Opeartion 100, which I'll be writing a review of for next week's CP.

Also, while this week's CP is not yet online, it is out in print, and I picked up a copy outside the elevator entrance to Wood Street. My interview with Absurdistan author Gary Shteyngart is advertised on the front, which is exciting. I'll include a link in tomorrow's post, when the whole enchillada goes live on the CP site.

Shome Dasgupta's "Writers On Reading" Series & Other News

Writer Shome Dasgupta, author of I Am Here and You are Gone (Outsider Writers Press, 2010), kindly invited me to write a little something about reading's importance to me and to my writing process. I'm honored to be in the company of writers like Heather Hartley, Blake Butler, Jason Jordan, and Howie Good. Read my response here.

In the meantime, an excerpt:
"My favorites are Tin Drum and The Flounder, translated by Ralph Manheim in 1961 and 1978, respectively (my copies are badly dog-eared). Both are like that really good first shot of bourbon, which seems to brighten and sharpen the look of the world."

The young lass here has been busy lately. Teaching yes, but also writing. I just finished a review of Audio Space, an exhibition at Wood Street Galleries by interactive media artists David Rokeby and The Pogues co-founder Jem Finer. I'll be visiting Wood Street's sister gallery, SPACE, in a week or so to see the exhibition "SCALE" by guest curator Ally Reeves.

An article about the exhibition DIY: A Revolution in Handicrafts, currently on view at Pittsburgh's Society for Contemporary Craft, will run in the March/April 2011 issue of American Craft. I'm very grateful to be part of this publication, which I remember devouring as a college student during my study breaks in the library.

Image, above right: Kate MacDowell, "Taking Root" (2009) from DIY: A Revolution in Handicrafts

Here's a little preview-excerpt:
"Johnston’s sterling penannular bracelet Did Dolly Dream of a Bio Mom?, 2010 makes witty reference to the Philip K. Dick novel that inspired Blade Runner. Her work’s helix-shaped band – ending in the bounding front halves of two fuzzy ruminants ­– alludes to the extraordinary leap taken by cloning sheep DNA. "