In a photographic attempt to recapture the experience of the child and free the viewer’s imagination, Maggie Meiners arranges colored objects into grid-like patterns and then shoots them in ultra-soft focus, creating pure psychedelic abstractions in which the blurred and glowing colors bleed into each other and dance before the eyes. Forget the child’s experience—only an infant might see this way—and the effaced memories that are so precious to Meiners. Think hallucinogens that put us into a disorienting present that seduces by its super-saturation. We could not know that we were seeing the heads of Bomb Pops in a mesmerizing red-white-and-blue design had Meiners not informed us of that in the image’s title. Meiners wanted to expand time and meaning; she ended up—to her credit—taking them away. (Michael Weinstein)
Through October 9 at Illinois Institute of Art, 180 N. Wabash, (312)280-3500
