"It's like walking into the living brain of an encyclopedia: multiple projections appearing on walls, electronic sounds generated from nowhere, circuit wires everywhere."
-Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine, September 2012
McClain Gallery is pleased to announce Trailer, the second solo presentation of Jeff Shore and Jon Fisher's installations in Houston. Shore and Fisher, who have collaborated since 2002, bring together their combined backgrounds in painting, electronics, and music to advance ideas about the relationship between the moving image and sound, as well as further the dialogue surrounding the histories of film, music, and human/technology interfaces. Known for their innovation, the artists bridge high- and low-tech instruments, analog electronics, and video sequencing software to create enveloping installations that are both engaging and theatrical.
Comprised of a series of interconnected electro-kinetic sculptures, sound-machines and projections, Trailer yields an immersive and interactive multi-sensory experience. A single red button, pushed by a curious visitor, will set the entire installation and a 12-minute performance in motion. Dendrite-like, circuitry wires climb the west gallery walls to connect a network of plywood contraptions to five overhead projectors. These suspended projectors in turn cast different colored rectangles adjacent to and upon the kinetic sculptures, revealing what tiny surveillance cameras, cheekily shrouded inside said boxes, capture in real time. Each device veils a small situational vignette that is elaborately hidden and then revealed in sequence on screen: a mountainous landscape jumps to a pay phone handset dangling off-hook, pans in to a close up of a phone keypad, a lone microphone on an empty stage, a diner, a tuba playing itself, and a trailer.
The playful complexity of the installation, with its "invisible" computers, self-generating musical compositions, and projections still relies on the viewer to build connections between the actual objects, visual components and sounds, to create narratives anew. Michael Wilson of ArtForum, once highlighted the artists' "delight in turning the act of looking and listening into a game of hide-and-seek." And because Shore and Fisher's aural and visual components are also synthesized in real time, Trailer is both a preview and the main event.
Also on view in an adjacent space will be one of their incandescent Flower works and Bellows, a stand-alone piece that combines elements found within Trailer with a video monitor.
Jeff Shore (b. 1969, Richmond, IN; lives in Houston, TX) earned his BFA from the University of North Texas, Denton. Jon Fisher (b. 1969, Texas City; lives in Dripping Springs, TX) received a BM from the University of North Texas and an MM and DM from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Shore and Fisherʼs collaborative works have been featured in solo exhibitions at McClain Gallery; Derek Eller Gallery, NY; and numerous group exhibitions, including Constructions & Architecture, The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, Dallas and Texas Prime, DiverseWorks, Houston. Reel to Reel, Shore and Fisherʼs debut show at McClain Gallery was also their first solo museum exhibition. It was exhibited at the Clementine Gallery, New York (2007); the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (November 7, 2008 - January 11, 2009); the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (February 1 - April 12, 2009); and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ (November, 2009 - January 24, 2010).