Using the physical history of the space itself as their point of departure, Chicago artists Cabal and Singh will effect subtle changes in the way viewers experience the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Through the artists’ installed’ ‘interventions’, walls, entryways, windows and lighting will be extended, compressed, articulated, and in other ways modified, playfully engaging viewers in the question of what parts of their visual experience are ‘real’- both within the gallery and outside it.

My work constantly traverses the lines between Metaphor, Reality and Illusion and ranges from plays on space-time theories to cultural, historic and physical critiques of place, done in paintings, interactive installations, sculpture, video and performance.

My recent projects involve drawing out, assembling and even weaving illusions of a perceived space, object or another time on top of the pre-existing objects and architecture of a chosen space, until from one vantage point the actual space is completely obliterated by the perceived. As viewers step away from the specified viewing position and enter the installation, the objects break into strange shapes, stubbornly fighting the architecture and retaining angles of a now-inaccurate perspective, generating a space- time hiccup where they are free to move but their earlier perception is not. Both form and material turn fickle as straight lines turn into curves mapped on a rounded table leg, the seamless frame of fictional chair abruptly bursts into a zig-zag of tiny hand cut and polished wood pieces, and the “fabric on a sofa” plainly starts displaying the hand’s gestures in chalk pastel. The backs of the real chairs, tables, trash cans, jars, exposed bits of the floor, walls, shelves and columns begin to unabashedly reveal themselves and a contradictory co-existence of the real and virtual begins.

Learn more on her website.