An interactive deconstruction of the Declaration of Independence, Conrad Freiburg’s installation is a unique contraption. Freiburg has taken verses of the historical document and created from wood, wire and stone an interpretation of the famous words. In one sculpture a lever can be pulled to drag a cement block over ball bearings, which symbolize “the people,” to represent the weight of suffering. Another piece allows the viewer to open a trap door to let a ball fall through the floor conveying the lack of a fair trial by jury. “Burnt our towns” shows the King, represented by a wooden crown, swinging above charred houses. Also on display are sketches of Freiburg’s imaginative inventions and art. Demanding all of one corner of the space and the center of the gallery floor is a wooden village at the mercy of a pulley system which can lower blocks to squash the people and the town—will gallery goers choose to crush or liberate the people? (Rachel Turney)
Through October 11 at Linda Warren Gallery, 1052 W. Fulton Market, (312)432-9500
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.
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.
