What happens when two strangers, male and female, are forced into each otherยs personal space? Will they flirt? Will they giggle uncomfortably? Or will they find themselves repulsed by each other? Los Angeles-based artist Kelly Nipper wanted to find out. ยPerspectives 158: Kelly Nipper,ย the artistยs first solo museum exhibition, features her video installation An Arrangement for the Architect and a Darkroom Tower, in which two people who had never met before stand less than a foot apart, facing each other, for a full hour. ยCertainly the work is an allegory of the age-old tensions between man and woman that began with Adam and Eve,ย says Toby Kamps, senior curator for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Sure, weยll buy that for a dollar. But what we really want to know is what happened between the two when it was all over. Did they go out for drinks? Never speak again? How did it end? Ask Nipper yourself at todayยs opening from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Oct. 5-Dec. 9, 2007
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2007.