Ultra-Deluxe at Sideshow is a show about movement - the lines that create the illusion even when standing still and the machines that move you.
"Adrenaline," a 17-foot streamliner by Michael Talley and Elizabeth Cohen is the drop tank from an actual jet. Painted military green and straight as an arrow, it is designed to be a jet on the ground - specifically for the Bonneville Salt Flats. It instead races insides of viewer's minds in Williamsburg.
Its long, cylindrical, missile shape cuts across the nearly-empty gallery: a gash in the silence, a tension held immobile. It's straight lines and smooth finish scream speed.
The piece next to it, "Unocycle," by Forrest Myers, is a circular motorcycle. Two steel circles revolve inside each other powered by a motor. (It is street legal and licensed.) Beautiful and curving, it looks like water frozen in motion, ready to start again at any time.
There is an obvious element at work here upon first observation; the minimalism of the show forcing the viewer to focus on the machines. They are for moving, not admiring the scenery. Also present is ying and yang, male and female. The phallic streamliner lying across the gallery floor; the circular female Unocycle moving vertically next to it.
There are two other pieces, seemingly relegated to the corners so as not to detract from the machines. The first is a pedestal, "Marker," of rough concrete and twisted rubber. Perhaps evoking the sometimes-bitter end such adrenaline machines can cause, a tire footprint is left in the top concrete. The second is "Helmet," a bright-yellow motorcycle helmet with a video in the rear. The movie shows a walking hand, with middle finger extended and ass cheeks above legs. Is it a statement from the mind of an adrenaline junkie, telling others who wonder at his daring that he doesn't care? You'll have to ask the helmet, and yourself.
Is this design or art? Sideshow's displays are always thought-provoking. Is there irony that a deadly napalm tank is now a vehicle designed to excite the senses through speed and danger? Does machinery deserve to be at a gallery, reminiscent of the Guggenheim, Bilbao show of motorcycles?
Just the fact these questions are being asked seems to provide the answers. A marriage of form and function, these machines prove art can take many different guises. Objects that are meant to physically move us can also move us on an entirely different level.
"Ultra-Deluxe" runs through October 14, 2002 at Sideshow gallery.