I am you, you are me, we're both alien and abductee.
-The Prime Directive by Capt. Ken Weaver

Spaced Out
Curatorial log, stardate 1996. The exhibition Psy-Fi is an attempt to bring together artists who are "colonizing a new frontier" in which psychoanalysis, science fiction, and technology coexist. A new way of thinking Pop; hovering, spectral, existing in the ether and either or in between world of out of body experience. A spectator twice removed, a cool detachment but no less fantastic, this New Age art view understands that the subject is at once past, present and future perfect: here, there, and everywhere. It's a pretzeling of position, an Escher path or a stroll down Mobius Lane, the classic subject/object point of reference is looped then re-looped, always already are you traveling forward yet moving parallel to, beside, across, under then over finishing at the starting line; the eternal return.

Star Wars
These artists all celebrate the newly liberated subject, a subject unbound from the corporal restrictions of race, gender and sexual preference. I am you, you are me, were both alien and abductee. These are the politics of shifting positions, a slipping and a sliding in and out of character, role play and the perverse world of the analysand: the universe of the teen beat.

Mission Control
"There is a way of theorizing the art world which allows equal access to psychoanalytic theory, to thinking about technology, and to thinking about the fantasies we all share about the future now (as in science fiction), without the derogation of our being only teenagers in the way we deal with psychoanalytic thinking, i.e.. it's possible to think psychoanalytically and at the same time be a total adolescent gadget lover."

- Laurence Rickels
from, "The Trauma and Tearing of Weaving"

The Artists in the exhibition:
Brian Crockett's sculptures of mutated genetic experiments force difficult relationships to illuminate how carefully created are the Groles which we assign to different animals. PSY-FI will include Mr. Crockette's Cat / Rat and Pig / Dog.

Phil Fortune's narrative photo assemblages of beautiful "glam"aliens who have come to steal skin.

Laurel Katz's Pottery Barn "transformers"disguised as haute couture hats.

Alex Pearlstein's video projection installation, "Flower"charts the pathos ridden adventures of an alien on earth and its search for beauty.

Steve Robinson's quasi architectural models made from pink polystyrene insulation hark en back to futuristic metropolises. However from the right perspective they reveal a hidden image that reevaluates human experiences such as empowerment vs handicap or escape vs immanent death.

Jim Shaw's daily catalogs his dreams in drawings which depict cultural activity sived through the subconscious.

Bruce Tappola's unapologetic paintings depict such scenarios as sculptures instructing the artist on the metaphysical do's and dont's of cubism. Notions of "masterpiece"and "inspiration"are wryly trounced.

Ken Weaver's luscious oil paintings of Kiss bassist, Gene Simmons, touch on retro trends and Japanese futuristic visions.

Fritz Welch's works with elegant large scale drawings that densely weave psychedellic patterns created from "pop" icons and images. For PSY-FI the artist will create a drawing as an installation which will spread like a virus.

RICKELS' ESSAY Crockett Fortune Katz Pearlstein Robinson Shaw Tapola Weaver Welch

PSY-FI has been co-curated by RAW's J. Anderson and Ken Weaver with assistance from Laurence Rickels.

Gallery Hours are Monday through Friday 10 - 5 PM and by appointment.

Construction has begun on the first phase of RAW's new arts center. Plans include a 170 seat movie theater, a cafe, a performing arts theater, an outdoor concert area and 3 Galleries. Come check out our progress.

Real Art Ways gallery program is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Larsen Fund, Inc., the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation and Real Art Ways Members. - Real Art Ways receives significant support from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. - Real Art Ways would like to thank HB Group, of North Haven, for their contribution to PSY-FI.