While tabs of acid are not there to greet you at Red Bull Studios New York, there is no question that the remaining days of “Spaced Out: Migration to the Interior,†a thoroughly contemporary exhibition by Brooklyn Rail founder Phong Bui, will flood the senses. The space, which Bui has described as a “perpetual set for an Austin Powers movie,†offers fertile ground for the psychedelic show that Bui had in mind.
Bui isn’t making a cheap curatorial point that electronic music and drugs have a soul mate with art or anything. Quite the opposite. Inside, you’ll find a grouping of contemporary heavyweights whose practices overwhelm sensory experience: Jim Lambie, who installed his recognizable colorful vinyl tape floors; Fred Tomaselli, who has a rare installation shown only once at PS1 in the late ‘80s, involving speakers and kitty litter; and Jon Kessler, who was inspired by ear gauges, and who devised a machine to blow bubbles through a wax ear piercing. Watch the video below, with an overview of the vivid exhibition along with testimonials from the artists and Bui. We don’t promise euphoria, but it’s certainly a trip through the power that these works of art possess.
“Spaced Out: Migration to the Interior†closes this Sunday, December 14.