Inside selected containers, red worms break down organic wastes. Four highly sensitive contact microphones amplify the movements of the worms into the gallery space. A chart on the wall provides a locating reference for the source of the sounds. Video feeds transmit the decomposing interior to select locations.

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A Hallwalls Artist in Residence Project (HARP)

In this exhibition, NYC-based artist Eric Brown presents new sculptures of neon. BrownÕs point of departure, literally and figuratively, are the physical forms that typically represent actual terminals for air or rail transport. Terminals are points of interchange along specified routes, while remaining isolated entities unto themselves. They are locations that encompass departures, arrival, orÑin the nightmare scenarioÑperpetual stasis. Terminals are points that serve to connect disparate places while remaining aloof and disconnected themselves. They hum with activity but remain remote, neutral spaces.

BrownÕs new sculptures break down into the purest form short of a hologram by composing each work from white neon, the physical components of which mimics the larger metaphor. The sculptures require cables and power sources and thus require a connection to the outside world. Unlike other sculptural forms, these works cannot be realized without this connection, it is integral to their existence. At the same timeÑand despite the sculptures laying directly before usÑthey incorporate a singular and separate quality. While electrically Òhot,Ó they are also blindingly cool. They are present and distant.

The reiterations of the basic forms through multiple lines of neon replicate a process Brown has used in the past, primarily through cast plaster and the repetitive stacking of identical forms. The key distinction in the newer works is one of volume and, through that, of sensation. Rather than stacked plaster, stacked neon inhabits space and reiterates form without presenting a weighty mass.

BrownÕs new neon works transform physical sculptural materials into ethereal space, treating a terminal as a way station that is both actual and elusive. They are not merely a stop along the way, but locations imbued with idealism and utopian promise.

Eric Brown is represented by Goff+Rosenthal, NYC.