Review: Suyama Space installation shows the handmade doing battle with the high-tech

Eric Eley is intrigued by space, perhaps most of all by illusionary space, and that's what his installation at Suyama Space is all about. His work, "in theater," creates space through the absence of mass.

The idea for his piece came out of his fascination with aerial photographs of World War II-era European battlefields collected by his airman grandfather. Once Eley's curiosity was piqued, he sought further information on the camouflage techniques used to protect artillery emplacements. Handmade mesh nets covered in bits of burlap provided just enough structure to deceive the eyes of enemy pilots. They were easily transportable and low-tech, yet they concealed the heavy weapons from fliers who were using the most sophisticated technology of the time. The contradictions led Eley to this installation.

He's been fashioning the various parts since October 2010, working from drawings and a master plan, but he never saw the piece fully constructed until he put it together at Suyama. That process took two weeks.

At one end, along the floor are a series of crosslike, interlocking white elements. They represent antitank barricades that protect the camouflaged guns from ground attack. Though they appear to be wood, Eley cast them in white plaster.

In this installation we must imagine the weaponry. Eley's undulating camouflage "roof" covers empty space. It's an eye-fooling screen composed of neutral-colored burlap strips hung intermittently from a grid made of parachute cord. The strips' colors complement the aesthetic of Suyama Space. Although the piece is based on the arsenal of war, for the viewer there is something almost festive in the flutter of those pieces of burlap.

Eley wants that contradiction, just as he sought contradiction in naming the piece: "in theater." Think of the meanings of theater — the performance stage, the stage of life, the theater of war. Conceptually, the work contains elements to confuse both the mind and the eye. Camouflage is protection, but it is effective only if it deceives the eye. If it doesn't, all we get is the illusion of protection. These wartime structures are acts of faith. Those who sought protection below them had to hope that the designer really did know how the eye worked.

Throughout his installation, Eley has played with the perceptions of his viewers. What looks like wood is really plaster. You see the parts Eley constructed, but their shadows on the wall are as much a part of the aesthetic as the construction itself, a construction that is mostly illusionary space.

Eley, born in Iowa in 1976, received his master of fine arts degree from the University of Washington, where he taught and worked until moving to Dallas to teach at Richland College. One of his pieces is part of the permanent collection at Harborview Medical Center. Another work under development has been commissioned for open space at South Lake Union.

Nancy Worssam: nworssam@earthlink.net