Here's to New Connections

This is the first in a new multimedia series of On Exhibit columns. Each month, Leah Lopez Schmalz will turn her critical eye to one of the area's many art galleries and museums. Look for accompanying features like videos and slide shows on your town page of our website, Zip06.com. And remember, the revitalized On Exhibit will be interactive in the truest sense; we welcome your feedback and ideas about what to cover and the additional features you'd like to see! Send your suggestions to Living Editor Meredith Crawford at living@shorepublishing.com or to Leah at leahlopez9@yahoo.com.

When I spied the cellophane-wrapped antelope, I was disturbed...and intrigued. I knew that Connectivity Lost in Wesleyan University's Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery was the show I needed to check out for my first expanded On Exhibit column.

Connectivity Lost calls attention to the alienation people can feel in such a fast-paced digital world. We've gone from a time when we were awakened by the sun and tilled the fields for our own food to one in which technology has left us without boundaries-but one in which we are, ironically, disconnected from the source of our food.

Some pieces in Connectivity Lost, like Daniel Alcalá's New Topologies (Series II) and Maria Hedlund's The Whiteness of the Whale Part III, are wake-up calls.

New Topologies consists of three, floor-to-ceiling vinyl reproductions of cell towers disguised to look like trees ("frankenpines"). Not coincidentally, these three silhouettes are installed opposite a plate glass wall that overlooks the knotted, twisting branches of a real, live tree and a large stretch of fresh grass.

The Whiteness of the Whale Part III pits the intense awe of Melville's Captain Ahab against a video of a once-wild and graceful white whale reduced to captivity in a small concrete tank at Coney Island Aquarium. These, along with Barnes's photographs-like Single Ungulate and Man Amid Blue Crosses, which features the aforementioned cellophane-wrapped antelope-demonstrate how humans have divorced themselves from the rest of their shared environment.

Others, like Lucy and Jorge Orta's worldwide installation 70x7 The Meal, are a window to a future where we are mindful of our shifting society. The Ortas demonstrate how we can actively incorporate into our modern-day lives those elements of our past that managed to keep us grounded in community. Instead of art imitating life, in 70x7 The Meal, life is art-a meal for seven people, each of whom then invite seven people, who then invite seven people, ad infinitum. This grassroots exercise in eating and community has resulted in 30 meals in 20 locations. One in Paris was 3,000 people strong. At these dinners, strangers from all walks of life take a few hours to get to know each other, discussing issues common to the location. These shared stories are then imprinted in the Limoges plates. The exercise encourages people to celebrate what they have in common.

And, speaking of celebrating, here's to new endeavors! If you haven't already joined in, check out On Exhibit updates by following Shore Publishing on Facebook (Facebook.com/thesourcect) and Twitter (@thesourcect). Help us discover firsthand if our web presence is a case of connectivity lost, or connectivity found.

Connectivity Lost will be on display through Dec. 5 in Wesleyan University's Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at 283 Washington Terrace in Middletown. It is open to the public Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Fridays. The gallery will be closed Wednesday, Nov. 24 through Sunday, Nov. 28. For more information, call 860-685-335 or visit www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Leah Lopez Schmalz is an environmental attorney with a B.A. in industrial design and a concentration in visual art and jewelry studies. Email her at leahlopez9@yahoo.com.