December 7-22, 2011
XYZ:NYC 10 Downing
Leslie Eastman and Natasha Johns-Messenger
presented by No Longer Empty
10 Downing Street, West Village, NYC

A collaborative team since 2004, their work has historically focused on exploring real and perceived space through interventions in interior architecture. For XYZ: NYC 10 Downing, the pair will seek to challenge the perception of visitors through a three-part series of optical site installations designed to force visitors to experience and interpret alternate points of view.

This is a pretty great exhibition, complete with a camera obscura, perceptual mirrors-and-lights spaces, virtual reality goggles, and a Naumann-esque hallway. I heard about the exhibition via a program, wherein an NYU psychologist, the former NY Times Ethicist Randy Cohen, and the two artists shared lots of thoughts about optical and psychological perception, the ethical responsibilities of artists, and biases. It was a great talk. Eastman, in particular, had some prime nuggets:

[The exhibition] doesn’t have footnotes, but it does have references.

and

[On expanding perception through drawing:] It’s like learning to hear the bass and not just the treble.

Looking forward to more programs from No Longer Empty.