Echoic

From the Gambit review by D. Eric Bookhardt,

“Curated by Natalie Sciortino-Rinehart, Echoic explores the subjective or psychological aspects of relationships in works by four locally based yet not very well known artists. Spare, enigmatic and almost monochromatic, Echoic exudes an aura not unlike some of John Cage’s time- and silence-based compositions, and if the works are somewhat uneven, they function fairly well together as an installation. Even if no easy hooks or conceptual rope ladders are thrown to the viewer, just having that much visual starkness and stillness in one room makes for an interesting contrast to the prevailing attention deficit disorder of so much high-concept contemporary art. Some of the easier ones include A 53 Year Old Comfort Tower, a kind of 14-foot tower, or totem, of pillows suspended in a vertical sequence. Made from fabric, cotton balls, yarn, ‘fluffy stuff” and ‘dog hair,” it’s the artist’s tribute to her mother, or maybe all mothers. Laura Gipson’s see-through wire mesh chair containing castings of outstretched hands in the seat suggests the dualistic potential of intimacy to be either supportive or creepy. But my most ” and least ” favorite piece is Ariya Martin and Michael Winter’s I Am Listening video, a view out the window of a house with nothing happening but gentle movements of tree branches in the breeze. It’s utterly boring yet utterly eloquent in the way it evokes the unspoken mysteries that exist in all relationships, the sentient sea of silence that underlies those things we choose to remember. Or not.”