Lewis Koch (Afsnit P)
Garageography
Those of you misfortunate enough to have missed the visionary Madison-based artist Lewis Koch's most recent garage installation last year -- and those of you who saw it and were sufficiently blown away to now be tumbled by waves of nostalgia at the mere mention of it -- can now enjoy a second look.
Garageography Version 3.0.7, a virtual reproduction of last year's exhibition, was published live on Thursday by the Danish virtual exhibition space Afsnit P.
Perhaps best known as a photographer and artist working in media ranging from text and sculpture to architecture and performance, Koch is represented in the permanent collections of such prestigious institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie at Paris, but has also exhibited his work on such nontraditional platforms as billboards and kiosks.
Koch has been mounting his garage installations for almost a quarter century, at irregular intervals of a decade or more, in the detached one-car garage at his home on Madison's near east side. The first, "Garage Interiors," was on display in 1983. The second, "Duct Tape Works," followed in 1993. Last year's exhibition was based on Tristan Tzara's 1934 text When Things Dream, and was a wondrous collection of photographic, sculptural, textual and found curiosities.
The interactivity of Koch's collaboration with Afsnit P allows visitors to explore layers of text, animation, audio, video and still photographs by using their cursors to wander through the exhibit, click on objects to bring up text or notes or the objects themselves, and pursue whatever catches their eyes only to find surprises between here and there -- augmented by features and tools that put the entire installation at your fingertips and allow your fingertips to lead you into a maze of metaphorical chutes and ladders (some long a circuitous, others short and straight).
Prepare to be engrossed.
