TREACHEROUS SILVER SHEEN

The exhibition Treacherous Silver Sheen meets the eye in a space that is already full of layers, stories, and fingerprints. On display are sculptures and images. Some address the space directly and others raise questions about time and value judgements.

The exhibition’s innermost layer is uncharted territory, a found space within a space. The Blassgrün paint of a railing forms the perimeter of this invisible space, giving it definite size, shape, and boundaries. Outside the newly-defined space hang red theatre curtains. They also mark out a space; they slide on tracks and part at one’s convenience. Theatre curtains are red because darkness absorbs the colour red first, softening fervour and passion.

Four paper dolls turn up, well-preserved after a long stay between the pages of a book of wisdom that says, “Reason must guide and feelings delight.” The paper dolls are clearly precious, but lost and forgotten. The oxygen is overwhelming.

The layers of the space mount up, thin veils that are harder to discern the more of them there are. Time-lines blur together; no one remembers any more whether confirmation receptions were held in spring or early fall, and some people say that the railing has always been there.

April Fool’s Day leaves room for doubt, however. This could all be a trick—What a relief. The outermost layer of the exhibition is a building, a community hall.