July 1999 / The Invisible Hand

Installation views Photos: Linda Peschong — Installation views
Photos: Linda Peschong

Jesse Paul Miller Seeding Device, 1998 Fiberglass, light, CD player, speakers, sound Sound engineering/editing assistance by Scott Colburn and Rob Millis Collection of Ben & Aileen Krohn Photo: Linda Peschong — Jesse Paul Miller
*Seeding Device*, 1998
Fiberglass, light, CD player, speakers, sound
Sound engineering/editing assistance by Scott Colburn and Rob Millis
Collection of Ben & Aileen Krohn
Photo: Linda Peschong

Craig Coleman, *Control Panel*, frosted plexi-glass, electrical wire, 18 toggle switches, incandescent lights.

Craig Coleman, *Plastic Bam Bam*, detail of projection, a small clear plastic toy rotating in place.

Craig Coleman, *Linear Thinking*, lighted cubes made of 35mm slides of CAT scan images of brains. The cubes are lit with lights that have a blinking pattern and cause small projections of the slides onto a frosted mylar screen that hangs in front of them and creates an animated movement.

Curator / Sean Miller

The Invisible Hand

Craig Coleman
Jesse Paul Miller

July ? - ?, 1999

Location / 310 1st Ave (Elliot Bay Underground)

The Invisible Hand paired the works of Craig Coleman and Jesse Paul Miller. Coleman's work included a suspended panel that allowed viewers to switch on projected imagery associated with capitalist excess. Coleman explained, "'The Invisible Hand' is taken from The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. It refers to the idea that if each person in a capitalist society is concerned only with his/her own self-preservation the economy will be led by an invisible hand and everyone will succeed."

Craig Coleman's projections explored the dark side of the "invisible hand" mentality. He stated, "Strip malls, tract housing developments, the birth of mega-stores, the wasting of valuable natural resources, and other signs of rapid growth have angered inhabitants of towns and cities that have little control over their city space as large corporations dictate the future of our shared environment." Viewers of the installation were able to interact by activating projections and illuminating the space with images of Blockbuster Video, Hooters restaurants, La-Z-Boy Furniture stores, transparent plastic toys, soap bubbles, vacuum tubes, and other symbols of the U.S. economy.

Jesse Paul Miller exhibited numerous works including Contemplation Unit (1999) and Seeding Device (1999). Miller said of the exhibition, "These pieces were about reflection and memory, but also concerned with the delivery and processing of information, the beginning of an ongoing investigation into what I call the 'cult of artificiality' — a term I use to describe the manufactured reproduction of nature in the contemporary world." Contemplation Unit included a low-frequency sound generated by a hidden, un-grounded amplifier and speaker. By adjusting the amplifier volume one could create and change various visible wave patterns in the pool of colored water on top of the sculpture.

Text by Sean Miller