Here’s a copy of a short review I wrote about “Synesthesia” mounted for a year at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum at OU, Norman, OK:
A REVIEW: My visit to Fred Jones Jr. Museum last week for the opening of Synesthesia, an installation by Factory Obscura, left me with mixed emotions. Each segment prompted its own reaction and those reactions fought against each other, all the way from "scary" to "too sweet" to "repressive" to "vaguely threatening" to "cozy playhouse." I just couldn't settle on any satisfactory assessment of my relationship to the bits and pieces (handmade) produced by a team of mostly female artists. The couch at the entrance made me recoil--it looked like a boa constrictor was ready to trap me in its folds (see pic below). When I saw the lavender ironing board suspended high over my head, I felt the weight of many hours standing before one. The blue balls dripping down on me? Well, enough said. When parlor scenes are miniaturized and surrounded by neon pink shag carpet, it's getting tough to swallow. At the end, we're allowed to hammer bright pink and purple gongs and drums, but it didn't ease my suspicions that I was viewing the insidious entrapment of the female in our culture that begins with our childhood playhouse--play house? Better go see it, and more than once. I've only skimmed the surface. Clever, ironic, sad, and disturbing. Must be art.
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