Video has not killed the sculpture star.
A pair of hot shot Brooklyn artists react to the digital world’s omnipresence in modern life with two large-scale interactive exhibits opening on July 10 at the Brooklyn Museum.
Artists Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, better known as the collective “Faile,” are preparing the museum’s “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” show. Each display looks at the difference between how we used to engage with our environments and how we do now. The goal of the exhibition, says Miller, is to point out to the audience how loud, bright, and shallow our interactions with objects are in today’s digital world compared to how they once were.
“Things today come to life with sound and video,” said Miller. “There is not the quiet, old-world craft there used to be. In many ways, you do not have to work as hard.”
The “Temple” installation includes painting and sculptures inspired by American folk art, religious architecture, and 20th century icons such as pulp magazines, comic books, sci-fi movie posters, adult entertainment advertisements, and storefront typography.
The other installation, “Faile & Bäst Deluxx Fluxx Arcade,” features retrofitted video games, pinball machines, and foosball tables that act as both sculptures and working games. Miller encourages audiences to play in the arcade and to climb on or touch many of the sculptures as if they were pieces of public art in a town square.
“We hope that people will see the range of the work but also really connect with the work on an interactive way and touch and feel it themselves,” said Miller.
Not all of the art will be interactive, however. A handful paintings and marble sculptures will be labelled as off limits to grabby hands.
Many of the pieces in the exhibit have been on display in other parts of the world, including Lisbon, Miami, and the island of Manhattan.
“Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. between Washington and Flatbush avenues in Prospect Heights, (718)638–5000, www.brook
