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Ed Brown The Shortest Distance Between 2 Points

Ed Brown’s solo effort at Cave heightens awareness on many levels suggesting that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, but the amount of points between the destinations is infinite. In the act of engaging and spending time with these works I feel as if that distance is an approximation that cannot be defined. The surprisingly addictive, interactive exhibition gracefully walks the line between creatively precise ingenuity and good homegrown fun. Immediately one is caught by the striking appearance of a blown up bright red balloon pinched between two horseshoe magnets, that almost touch at the ends, emphasizing the amount of tension and potential within that distance between the two.

A video piece of two seemingly still images that by the push of a button interchanges between a shot of a kitchen (stove and phone within the frame), and a shot of a man, identified as the artist’s father, sitting at a dining room table on the phone. The sound of the phone ringing is heard through the headphones also interchanging as the video changes. The sound quality changes from being a caller, sitting on the phone, to being at home and hearing the phone ring repeatedly. Through multiple clicks of the button one can only laugh at the situation at hand, as a viewer, we are found once again focused on the distance between the two and the realization that we are so familiar with both points. Another video piece highlights various people, blindfolded rapping along to various ‘90s hip hop songs as if they were in the privacy of their own home, with no one else around. Through the headphones, one can hear both the music and the rappers that in turn prompts us as viewers to sing along, bridging the gap between the activity of the piece and the spectator state we are in.

The show is interlaced with an inventive approach to allow us to re-engage with common occurrences in a clever lighthearted atmosphere and present our pool of questions to this supposedly short distance between ourselves and our surroundings.

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