The Hermosa Beach Easy Reader
Art review

Touch Me

by Bondo Wyszpolski


Come out of there, little fellow, Ginger Bier calls to artist's Daniel Wheeler's piece of work.

In what might be the artistic equivalent of a petting zoo, Gallery C’s new Touch Me exhibit encourages the viewer to have what he or she normally does not have in a space devoted to art: a hands-on experience.

These pieces range from Tilghman Branner’s furry Rothkos (“hey, baby, pat the fur”) to Brad Howe’s flappable metal Miros—works that are often as stylish as they are inventive and clever.

Likened by one visitor as “refrigerator magnet art,” which made me laugh, Marion Lane’s peel-and-stick art piece is comprised of dozens of biomorphic shapes, from flowered stalks to hummingbirds, all of them sensuous in color and form. Lilli Muller’s little featureless “stuffed animals,” all of them pure white, can be picked up from their

Plexiglas nests—let your imagination make of them as you will.

Iona Egg has several works that attach to the wall at eye level. Sea urchin resembles a honeycomb, i to the storm seems like magnified red corpuscles, and so forth. Visual candy, really, somewhat like Rebecca Niederlander’s boxes that we can peer into, ditto Keith Lord’s hollowed out old books in which we can glimpse intriguing views.

Daniel Wheeler’s Outpost can be considered an installation piece, where the viewer, having taken a seat in a metal recliner, can push a button that activates a treadmill high overhead that contains numerous scenic postcards. A little screen above the button shows each of the cards up close as they revolve into view. Enigmatic and quirky, and somewhat amusing for all of that, as is another piece by the same artist called Untitled (hall), in which we are encouraged to squint inside a peephole set into a male torso clad in old white underwear. Actually, what hints at being a lurid experience is anything but, and in fact the show is remarkably restrained when it comes to the sexually suggestive or the unsavory.

There are two artists who get a lot of attention, one of them who goes by the moniker Kingsley. Kingsley’s Harp, for example, is like a vast soundboard, maybe a dozen feet across, with thick strings that one can pluck or brush. The deep resonating sounds echo quite well in the cavernous surroundings. Then there are well crafted and smartly painted cubes by Moshe Elimelech, which can be individually removed from their housing, mounted on the wall, and reinserted with a different side facing out. It is discreetly urged that one use the disposable gloves that are available, as too much handling will inevitably have an adverse effect, but how successful this suggestion will prove remains to be seen—not very, would be my guess.

Interactive art, in an exhibition without the slightest hint of a concession to a kids’ museum, really shows its possibilities here. Making art that is accessible and fun without trivializing it is no easy task, and I think that is one display that reaches this goal with its integrity intact.

Touch Me will be on view through May 21 at Gallery C, 1225 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach. Daily except Monday and Tuesday. 798-0102.