While containing all of the gentle tactility and delicate detail you might expect from a textile-work, Sheila Hicks’s two-story cascade blows the whole definition apart. Monumental, visceral – you feel the tangled coils twine through your own gut. It dwarfs you, shrinks you to the size of a pin head next to a spool of thread. You have no chance to passively observe, but must conquer the simultaneous desire to dive in
In case super-slick technology and mass-produced products make you crave a little human touch, swing by the Institute of Contemporary Art and take your fill of finger marks, hand-lettered signs and claymation-esque film. Three concurrent shows — “Dirt on Delight: Impulses That Form Clay,” “Touch Sensitive: Anthony Campuzano” and “Joshua Mosley: dread” — maintain a magnetic sense of tactility, making visible the work
“What can puppets do that humans can’t?” queries the stuffed-cat-with-movable-arms moderator of “Puppet Conference,” a film by Christian Jankowski, on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art. “The Puppet Show,” ICA’s current first-floor group exhibition, explores the range of puppet imagery and ability through puppet-inspired artwork, films of various forms of puppetry, and of course, actual puppets. It’s a quir
Author’s Note: In the printed version of this review, the publisher had removed the descriptions of several artworks that he found offensive. (Which, as you will see, underscores the need for just this sort of review…) The text below is my unedited version. ### Conversations about contemporary art, even with other art-writers, frequently return to some expression of, “I don’t get it,” “I don’t know what t
Are you tired of hands-off, eyes-only art? Do you enjoy architecture, unexpected juxtapositions, or pirate jokes? It might be time to check out the current set of exhibitions at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), featuring solo shows by Eileen Neff and Jay Heikes, an installation by architecture studio Taalman Koch, and a group show of sound artists called “Ensemble.” A stroll through the galleries takes you o