F2F: NEW MEDIA ART FROM
FINLAND at InterAccess (401
Richmond West) to November 3, the Art
Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas West) to
November 4, and the Design Exchange
(234 Bay) to November 6. 416-599-7206.
Rating: NNN
by the time a heavily-hyped, well- funded show has been on an international tour for a year, the pieces in it should all be working. Unfortunately, F2F: New Media Art From Finland includes pieces that are not particularly robust, to use an industrial software term.
Of the three works scheduled to be on display at InterAccess, one — Iceborg, by Andy Best and Merja Puustinen — hasn’t been installed at all, and Hame, by Laura Beloff and Maex Decker, has crashed. Staff are slow to reboot it (a 20-minute procedure) because they’re sick of realigning the light sensors that get knocked out of place every time viewers follow instructions and sit on them.
Need, by Tuomo Tammenpää, is a glorified Web page. The gallery presentation has a trade show feel, complete with complimentary trading cards (available at SPIN as well as InterAccess, the DX and AGO, among others).
The overall impact is underwhelming, but when the pieces work, they do have a gee-whiz appeal.
deirdre@nowtoronto.com