Andrea Blum, Freya Hansell, Barry Le VaInstallations

Installation is a form of art in which the artist has complete control not only over the creation of art objects, but over their placement and interaction with each other, with the floors and walls which define the space, and with the viewer. For this exhibition, Barry Le Va, who works out of New York, and Andrea Blum and Freya Hansell, both of Chicago, will each install in one separate area of the gallery space.

Freya Hansell’s awkwardly hung and balanced beams of lumber make the viewer aware of one’s fragility and of the precarious nature of all human constructions. The strength of such an impression is due to the conherent environment in which the objects exist, designed entirely by the artist to give a unified aesthetic effect. Less threatening but equally involving are Barry Le Va’s rooms full of small objects that demand to be sorted out according to the systems which determined their placement. Andrea Blum’s piece deals with peripheral vision, detaching the structure from the viewer through physical presence and mood.