Special Things/Scary Things

Sept. 9, 2006 - Oct. 7, 2007

Fringe Exhibitions

solo exhibition For their first solo Los Angeles exhibition, the McCoys present two new works. Both pieces are inspired by the language and themes of childhood. In the upstairs gallery, their project Special Things explores a super-charged utopian childhood of cavorting lambs, romping youths, and chiffon rainbows. All of this is rendered sculpturally in fragments across sixteen small hanging sculptures. Each sculpture consists of a miniature scene, a small video camera, and a mirrored word layered across the front of the sculpture. On a nearby screen, images of the sixteen scenes and their words are rapidly intercut, creating new sentences and shifting meaning: "The children feel special today" or "You can smell the flowers". In the downstairs gallery, the McCoys present Scary Things whose images come from simple elements of nature that can be frightening to children. This sculpture uses a similar technique of tiny cameras, sculptural miniatures, and acrylic text, but here the terrain is one integrated platform. Although the sculpture contains only ten words, hundreds of sentences are created, forming a reduced poetry of fear: "Dogs are fighting scary things" or "Lost birds are scary ".


Works Shown

Scary Things 2

2006, Sculptural video installation with flat-screen display.

Scary Things is made of images of the simple elements of nature that can be frightening to children. This sculpture (like Special Things) uses the technique of tiny cameras, sculptural miniatures, and acrylic text in one integrated platform. Although the sculpture contains only ten words, hundreds of sentences are created by a software-based video sequencer, forming a poetry of fear which sets image against text: "Dogs are fighting scary things" or "Lost birds are scary".

Scary Things 1

2006, Sculptural video installation with flat-screen display.

Scary Things is made of images of the simple elements of nature that can be frightening to children. This sculpture (like Special Things) uses the technique of tiny cameras, sculptural miniatures, and acrylic text in one integrated platform. Although the sculpture contains only ten words, hundreds of sentences are created by a software-based video sequencer, forming a poetry of fear which sets image against text: "Dogs are fighting scary things" or "Lost birds are scary".

Special Things

2006, Sculptural video installation with flat-screen display.

Special Things presents images of a utopian childhood complete with cavorting lambs and chiffon rainbows. These are rendered in fragments across sixteen small hanging sculptures. Each consists of a miniature scene, a small video camera, and a mirrored word emblazoned across the front of the sculpture. On a nearby screen, images of the sixteen scenes and their related captions are rapidly inter-cut by video sequencing software in an ever-changing pattern created by a computer algorithm. As the sequence of the words changes, the piece creates new sentences and shifts meaning between text and image: "The children feel special today" can become "Special children feel today".