notes from the ninth: good children play with sculpture

I'm not sure what the title of the show is (i am a lazy reviewer), but malcolm has curated a group of LSU sculptors for the current show at Good Children in the ninth ward. Craft is secondary to the ideas in most of the work, but it is this very roughness that allows a playful pursuit of possibility. The piece i liked the most in the show was certainly the table with the spoon and the ball that chased each other around a table when two people sat down on the opposing chairs. I am a sucker for inanimate objects come to life and i appreciate the need to have not just one, but two people to make a complete circuit. If you go to the show solo, you will need to use your social skills of persuasion to bring about your aesthetic moment. another piece that relies on the gee whiz factor is the nearly full scale, talking politician. you can control the movements of the facial features with a game controller. the figure is creepy and fascinating like the animatronic figures at disney world. i hear the good children in the neighborhood love to play with it. also of interest to me was the ceramic ice cream scoops freshly fallen from their cone. the forms are sweet and sumptuously slick. my small quibble was that the shelf it was displayed on did not give the sculpture the room it deserves. many other interesting things in the show, like the hair chairs. the two pieces that used video were unfortunately either too obtuse for me to get, or too mundane for me to be interested. Hopefully you will be luckier than i. all in all another interesting show from a gallery unafraid to take some risks. go see it quick, before it comes down.
-ds, lazy writer of late reviews. i'm sure you could do much better than this.