Push and Pull: It’s all done with...

Push and Pull: It’s all done with magnets and mirrors in Cameron Shaw’s new work at Richard Heller Gallery.

The first eye-teaser is an ostrich egg that appears to levitate overhead, inches away from its reflection in a wall-mounted mirror. A string connects the egg to a hook on the opposite wall, like a pet on a leash, but what really makes the egg stay in this unlikely place are magnets concealed within it and the facing mirror.

Shaw repeats the illusion with several variations, substituting an old-fashioned toy soldier or a candle for the egg. He also exploits the magnet’s power to repel, using this invisible force to prevent a standing oak plank from making contact with the wall it would logically lean against. “Leaning Plank” is a small, snickering homage to John McCracken’s planks of the ‘60s, just as “Leaning Shovel” nods somewhat lamely to Duchamp’s famous readymade of 1915, a snow shovel titled “In Advance of a Broken Arm.”

Shaw’s gimmick wears thin, however, and the magnetic principle of attraction/repulsion that he exploits ends up describing the duality in his own work--both its appealing trickery and disappointing superficiality. “Untitled, Jarvis Letter” is the one standout in the show, a surprisingly soulful comment on memory and persistence.

In it, a wall-mounted box contains a copy of an endearing missive, dated 1892, from a boy to his aunt. Thanks to those hidden magnets, the nib of a quill pen hovers in the air by the boy’s signature. By freezing the pen at the close of the enshrined letter, Shaw infuses a near-obsolete mode of communication with perpetual immediacy and lends his own work a redeeming note of emotional resonance.

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* Richard Heller Gallery, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 453-9191, through Dec. 20.