Ed Brown’s show at Cave, titled Mole Hole, is a selection of recent works.   The show is marked by a certain quirky humor within each piece.  I wouldn’t leave the significance of the pieces at face value.  There is something more to the work, but at this point it hasn’t yet revealed itself ; according to the artist.  So as a whole, Mole Hole is a show in progress, a group of disparate pieces, joined loosely under the same understanding.  Brown seems to be aware of the work he is producing as it relates to himself and other viewers, but the pieces are largely incomplete.

Perhaps the most provocative part of the show, “Headbanger”, is a motorized piece of wood spun close to the wall with a sock on one end and two large locks of fake brown hair on another.  As the piece spun, the hair thrashed in the same direction with each revolution.  The artist had to watch this piece the entire time while talking with friends and guests to insure that the locks of hair did not become tangled in the motor, occasionally unplugging it from the outlet below.

Another piece in the corner also needed some attention from time to time. A giant anthropomorphic pillow, suspended from the ceiling and looming over viewers as they gazed at two other pieces.  A hole in the middle of the pillow periodically spit LED lights onto the floor near viewers feet.  The piece itself was humorously animated,  looking like a face where some of the seams met and around the back you could see its innards sitting high, complexly ticking from a motor and cog.  This hovering piece was countered by another holed creation, “Scoob and Shag”, a painting depicting the two characters from Scooby Doo.  The artist, when taking breaks from tending to his other piece, ran back behind the gallery walls to either refill his pillow piece with LEDs or peer at onlookers through the eye holes of two groovy cartoon characters.

One could argue that this imperfection of constant maintenance during Brown’s opening is just as much a part of his aesthetic as everything else.  However, I found myself wondering whether or not the pieces within the show could be more cohesive.  But this undermines the aesthetic through which Brown seems to practice: Art doesn’t need to be serious.  Art doesn’t need to be difficult.  It doesn’t seem to be finalized, and for that reason it holds my attention much longer than some contemporary counterparts at larger institutions.  At the same time, it seems that the artist has the potential to make more decisive work in the future.  Though the show might not strike collectors as worthy of purchasing, nonetheless, Brown is making works that are from something seemingly true and real to his sensibilities, which is often hard to come by.

-Ham Poe

Mole Hole will on on display until December 4th.  More information can be found at the CAVE website.

(photos by cedric tai)