“The Sound of Acre,” Zafos Xagoraris’ latest sound installation, is as complex and beautiful as his name. The multimedia exhibit combines sound recordings from the Amazon region with a looped video of urban life in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Accompanied by mixed media paintings and drawings that were inspired by the concepts of community, displacement, absence and time, the installation begs the question, “Is silence a sound?” Xagoraris is based in Athens, Greece and has placed several installations worldwide. His work intends to draw the audience into an environment that is devoid of any population while simultaneously showcasing the life and history from other times. Etched paintings of empty chain-link cages illustrate his concept of space as a receptacle for past and future memories of communities that once were and yet to come. The use of visual and audio components successfully captures the drama that can be found in abandoned non-places by contrasting it with the most common elements of society, which can be seen in the video. Each component of the exhibit offer fascinating points within them, but together, they function as a sort of story that can be seen and heard. If you listen carefully, you may just hear the sound of one hand clapping. (Shama Dardai)
Through May 31 at Koscielak Gallery, 1646 N. Bosworth.
Repurposing AI: A Review of Stephanie Dinkins at Stamps Gallery While this show is timely for everyone, I consider its setting within a university art gallery and emerging tech hub like the city of Ann Arbor a subversive provocation which Dinkins invites the greater public—including members of the university community—to consider our own positionality to AI and technology.
Lost in Translation: A Review of Crip* at Gallery 400 The strongest works in the exhibition succinctly express the ways the artist relates to their own body while calling out how the artist’s body and body of work has been perceived or coded against norms or ideals.
