Wynne Greenwood, "Kelly" at The New Museum (revised)

Enter the small fifth floor gallery at The New Museum, and you encounter a block of bulky monitors and a wave of sounds. Crafty sculptures of heads made of household objects and toys sit under vitrines between televisions. Projections skew awkwardly into the corners. Headphones hang everywhere. Walk around the corner and two more monitors sit on the floor obscured by straps that, under different circumstances, would hold sex toys.

One doesn't know where to start, there does not seem to be a clear chronology to the display of the pieces in the gallery. There must be over thirty hours of video, so it is best to just dive in. Viewing this exhibition takes patience.

Installation view at The New Museum, Photo by Joerg Lohse
http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/wynne-greenwood-kelly

The majority of the show is made up of Greenwood's musical performances of her band Tracy + The Plastics. Greenwood toured as Tracy years ago, performing with two video projections of band members behind her (all three band members are played by Greenwood). Through a residency at the New Museum, she has created an archive of performances, many of which were not recorded the first time around, and would otherwise be lost to time.

Greenwood tackles miscommunication and conflict within feminist discourse, as well the digital vs the real. There is a great deal to ponder once you enter her girl band, low-craft world. It's tempting to say that this exhibition is squeezed into too small a space, but it is more like a portal. You enter the wormhole, and you are shown a the world through Greenwood's camera lens.