O.C. ART REVIEW : A Show Mr. Wizard Would Be Proud Of

In recent weeks, the Huntington Beach Art Center has turned itself temporarily into a whiz-bang research and development lab for artists pondering the ways human needs and fallibility intersect with the cool competence of science and technology.

Center curator Marilu Knode has gathered the work of 16 artists working in unusual media, from algae to cathode ray tubes, in “Veered Science” (through Sept. 4). As in any R&D; effort, some ventures are considerably more successful than others. But the net effect of the show is undeniably positive: a visual, aural and mental refreshment to challenge summer’s torpor.

At the top of the list is Tim Hawkinson’s “Tuva,” a contraption containing a soda bottle, air pump and motor, which simulates the unearthly, simultaneously high-and low-pitched sound of throat-singers from Tuva, a former Soviet republic.

As you watch, small pieces of plastic move in a way that seems to mimic (if memories of high school biology serve) the closing and opening of the epiglottis, and the piece emits a weird mooing sound. Made of castoff pieces of plastic, “Tuva” is so endearingly homespun that you practically expect Mr. Wizard, or a 12-year-old science fair winner, to offer a step-by-step explanation.

By attempting to translate the “exotic” quality of an unusual sound produced by a faraway people into a piece of all-American tinkering, Hawkinson emphasizes the link between the sometimes inexplicable (to the lay person) ways of science and the serendipitous discoveries of individuals.

The other audible work in the show is Gail Wight’s “The Electroencephalogram: A Cerebral Sonata.” Its haunting alto warble with a silvery top note, produced by a synthesizer, is based on the electrical patterns of brain waves.

The electroencephalogram itself--a delicate tracery printed on huge sheets of paper--also is part of the piece. In an accompanying text, Wight writes that thoughts triggered in unknown ways by sensory input may have a distinctive EEG configuration. It is curiously reassuring that the result of sophisticated studies in cognitive science should be so dependent on idiosyncratic variables--and that they ultimately return to the ancient mystical idea of harmonic principles underlying the universe.

Sophisticated biology lies behind davidkremers’ “Visceral Arch,” a flowing raspberry- and toffee-colored image on a sheet of clear acrylic. This free-form abstraction was made with replicating microorganisms selected to perform according to a computer-generated design. By using the fruits of genetic research in such a pleasing and seemingly harmless way, the artist underlines the seductive promise of biotechnology as well as the potential misuse of its power.

In Alan Rath’s wry piece “Couple,” human attempts at communication look peculiarly mechanical, while machinery imitates human intimacy. On a workbench, massive clamps hold two small cathode ray tubes in an enforced te^te-a-te^te. On the screens, male and female “talking heads”--silently jawing away at different speeds--seem to reflect a complete breakdown in communications. Under video scrutiny, the movements of lips, teeth and eyebrows become as mysterious as a bunch of whirring gears and levers.

Michael Joachin Gray takes a more overtly ironic approach in “Orange Evolution (Bang, Tang, Crash),” a display of orange plastic sculptural forms based on Harold Edgerton’s pioneering high-speed photograph of splashing water. (Too bad the gallery doesn’t display a reproduction of this image; it would make the piece much clearer.)

Gray’s wittily titled Sputnik- or crater-like models of a highly magnified drop of water in motion evoke the Space Age and one of its dubious byproducts (Tang) through cheesy color and man-made materials. The grid formation of the piece also recalls a strategy of Minimalism, an art movement developed in the ‘60s.

By mingling technological and aesthetic outlooks of the period in a tongue-in-cheek way, Gray suggests a certain gung-ho kinship between the two. Thirty years later, the world seems at once a much more complex and absurd place.

There is a great deal more to be experienced and pondered in the show, which easily looks like a candidate for the year’s best list. This degree of curatorial creativity and artistic venturesomeness is increasingly rare in Orange County outside a university setting.

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Also at the center, “Fuzzy: Construction of Identity within the Law,” education director Tyler Stallings’ eclectic show about the intersection of art, crime, law and the lay viewer, is most provocative in its deadpan survey of the work of a forensic artist.

Marilyn Ellis Droz’s drawings demonstrate how she reconstructs the appearance of a suspect, an unidentified corpse or a skull, based on photographs, memories and textbook guidelines.

Even the casual viewer can’t help but be struck by a certain weird family resemblance among all Droz’s reconstructions. It is worth pondering how issues of personal style (in the sense of a recognizable “handwriting,” as distinct from talent or imagination) enter into even this most utilitarian and “transparent” of art forms. At the same time, family snapshots of the long-missing dead gain a special poignancy; the gap between the curiously flawed “objectivity” of the reconstructions and the emotion viewers are likely to project onto the photos remains unbridgeable.

* “Veered Science” and “Fuzzy: Construction of Identity within the Law” continue through Sept. 4 at the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St., Huntington Beach. Noon to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; till 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; till 4 p.m. Sundays (closed Mondays except Labor Day, Sept. 4: Noon to 6 p.m.). Admission: $3 general; $2 students and seniors. (714) 374-1650.