Electric eyes

A jolting look at our plugged-in society

Electricity - the principal energy source in our lives and increasingly in art - is the focus of hip, young Home Gallery's new group exhibition. Two of the gallery's curator/managers, Veronika Drahotova and Veronika Bromova, work with multimedia, kinetic objects and light installations. Like many artists of their generation, they are dependent on electricity.

"We don't know exactly what electricity really is - you cannot see it," Bromova notes. "But we know very well what it does, and its monetary value, and that without it our social system would collapse."

"Elektrobot" contains works by Bromova and Drahotova, as well as a number of other respected Czech, French and American artists. The show is a lively mix of installation, sculpture, and computer- and video-based pieces, all requiring electricity either in construction or function or commenting on aspects of the energy source. Some pieces are more accessible than others.

In Julien Berthier's conceptual work Restore Hope (2002), he attempts to connect enough electric cable to reach from his Paris apartment to Silicon Valley, ostensibly to help out in the event of a power failure there. The piece draws attention to the imbalance between personal electricity use and industrial and commercial use and to the costs of such use - all theoretically being added to his utility bill. It also touches on the changing balance of power in current European-American relations. A photograph shows the thus-far-completed 810 meters (2,670 feet) of cable draped over ornate classical furniture in a plush home, and a detailed drawing shows the eccentric electricity-sharing plan, mapped out in all its implausible detail. It is an intriguing and thought-provoking piece, though unsatisfactory in its impossibility.

Thunder (2003) by Jana Kalinova involves a mobile phone attached, at ear height, to the end of a real lightning conductor that disappears out the gallery roof through a skylight. This work draws attention to the power of pure electricity, tamed and untamed, in nature and in our lives.

Two interactive computer works take interestingly different approaches. Geocit by Tomas Dvorak examines the connections between shape and sound. Using the mouse to run the cursor over abstract shapes on the screen triggers different noises. Dvorak addresses the audiovisual relationships by programming round shapes to have a soft resonance, while triangles have a sharpness of tone and sticklike shapes are percussive. Size also has an influence - smaller shapes are attached to higher-pitched sounds. The piece can be learned and played with, like a video game.

Untitled (Notion of Sacrifice) by Natalia Blanch is, in comparison, mysterious and disorienting. By the same process of clicking the mouse, one is taken into various environments. These involve snatches of video (a woman writing text all over her body), text and indistinct computer graphics. There is no apparent system or logic to the piece; the screens are dark and the images unclear and, despite being "in control" via the mouse, the viewer has a dramatically bewildering experience.

Other pieces are more lighthearted. Bromova's adolescent monogram - her initials drawn to resemble a vagina and breasts - is playfully recreated in fluorescent tubing. An inflated tube subsuming a human being by Katerina Vincourova, a picture made of burned toast and several other bizarre and/or meaningful constructions complete the exhibit. Take a while to be amused and confused at this unwieldy but intriguing show.

Lizzy Le Quesne can be reached at features@praguepost.com

Elektrobot

at Home Gallery Ends July 17. Truhlarska 8, Prague 1-New Town. Open Wed.-Sun.

1-8 p.m.