Tectonic Industries

Alfred Hitchcock fans, be warned: Franklin Artworks and artists Tectonic Industries are deconstructing the classic avian horror The Birds. Tectonic Industries' installation piece The Desire to Stay Versus the Inevitability of Change consists of 16 monitors, one for each character, showing people watching the film on mute and reading the lines of their characters from the closed captions. The participants onscreen are not acting, and not putting their lives on hold for the project, either. People enter and leave the rooms in the video; the participants, some with very few lines, find ways of entertaining themselves while waiting for their next turn to speak. The artists behind Tectonic Industries, Lars Jerlach and Helen Stringfellow, have been scrutinizing our culture through intriguing art together since 1999. Their art frequently shows people attempting to absorb and understand art, TV, and film. They've taped people cooking along with Rachel Ray's TV show, and they've taken on weightier matters. They analyzed another hallowed piece of American cinema with their 2006 work, If You Wait Long Enough, Something Always Happens, which consists of a white sofa and five televisions with video of five people explaining the classic Jack Nicholson film Five Easy Pieces, playing simultaneously. Undaunted by the challenge of breaking down the meaning of pop culture and art and how they are interpreted, the duo create work that's equally artistic and anthropologic.
Feb. 1-March 29, 2008