Installation View of Enigmas, 1996 © ArtNet Worldwide 1997 Another Installation View of "Enigmas", 1996

kristin jones & andrew ginzel at tz'art by Peter von Ziegesar "Enigmas," Andrew Ginzel and Kristin Jones's first gallery show in eight years (they have been busy doing public art, including a giant flag-of-all-nations for the Atlanta Olympics), is a consciously constructivist exhibition, very fascinated with gadgets, with the way things work, including the human body--the ultimate gadget, one might say. In this installation of various mixed-medium sculptures, wheels spin, fans whir, water ripples, mirrors flash and the combined use of silvered glass, squares of black painted on white walls and plenty of gold leaf give the installation a clean Deco-Duchamp-Malevich look. The three untitled pieces that dominate one wall require audience participation. Ideally, you are about 5'6" (I had to squat somewhat) as you stand in front of each work, looking through a black wooden frame that is suspended from the ceiling, sighting along red cross hairs. In turn, each work gives back a different reflection. In Untitled IV, you see yourself reflected in water contained in what looks like a giant watch glass (or might be a pristine birdbath). In Untitled V, you are striated by strips of mirror that are alternately far and near (so you look alternately big and small) and in Untitled VI, your face is cut in half by a sharp fold in the mirror, next to which is a giant nugget (turning base substance into gold?). Untitled I, on the opposite wall, is based on the commonplace knowledge that the human body is composed of a few pints of water, a few handfuls of carbon and a trace or two of fugitive and toxic gasses. For this piece, Ginzel has collected the exact substances that make up his own body: the chemicals are contained in beakers, there is a block of graphite and the water (supposedly the right amount) resides in a tall glass tube. What makes the piece interesting are the life-sized silhouettes of Ginzel painted, fan-like, along the wall. As one moves from left to right, the silhouettes seemingly devolve into Neanderthal features and also settle into the ground as if decaying. The whole thing turns out to be a trick, though, based on a nineteenth century optical illusion: if you look through the glass tube that purports to hold Ginzel's body water, the images are magically reconstituted. As one can tell, there is a lot of alchemy here, both in historical reference and simply perceptual: one feels or sees things change from one substance to another before one's eyes. I related the pieces strongly to Robert Whitman's contemplative mechanical-illusionist installation at the Pace Gallery last year and to some of Bill Viola's religion-inspired room pieces. One senses a passivity that is almost Zenlike-- like a splashing Japanese fountain--and Jones/Ginzel's pieces provoke a kind of meditation response rather than merely piquing intellectual interest (which they do, too). "Enigmas," Kristin Jones & Andrew Ginzel Sept. 17 - Oct. 19, 1996 TZ'Art & Co 28 Wooster St., New York, NY 10013. PETER VON ZIEGESAR is a writer and filmmaker who lives in New York.