When a Fuse is a Muse

If you’re looking for subtleties and nuances, stop reading here. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a reality check that runs the gamut from DVD video projections to a gloriously bashed-in ´99 VW Bug, look no further than the Dorsch Gallery (151 NW 24th St. Miami). In Kyle Trowbridge’s current exhibit at the Dorsch, “What Makes a Boy Start Fires?,” there are six works of varying mediums centered around a single theme: impotence. Social impotence, that is, as a result of automobiles. Technology races off, resting comfortably in the front seat as intimacy flattens its nose against the glass windows – locked out until we physically crash into each other.

In fact, it’s true of most gadgets intended to enhance our communication -- they only serve as means of “face time” when they crash. That goes for anything from four-wheel drives to hard drives. When we’re mashed and mangled around each other, or praying over our busted computers with the nearest Geek-squad, panic and personalization ensue.

Trowbridge’s idea scratches at technology’s surface. What we witness amid the wreckage of a car accident is a scrap of intimacy: a site we can’t unstick our eyes from. And this time we’re welcome to keep sticking, until closing night on October 6. Visit www.dorschgallery.com. Call 305-576-1276. Gallery hours are from 1 to 5 p.m., Thursday through Saturday.
Thursdays-Saturdays. Starts: Sept. 21. Continues through Oct. 6, 2007