Cynth-O-Matic

A one-woman exhibit
by Cynthia von Buhler,
featuring a kinetic arcade
of interactive and
performance art sculptures.

On display from
April 10 - May 8, 2004

Closing Reception:
Saturday, May 8, 2004
8 PM - Midnight

Cynthia von Buhler's art studio is a small red-walled theater complete with antique seats. Her actual workspace also doubles as a velvet-curtained stage. This is fitting, since her interactive paintings and sculptures do perform, and occasionally require the viewer to perform as well. The Artist, a fortune telling machine, deals out "art fortunes." The Cynth-O-Matic vending machine sells pieces of the artist's body, such as fingernail clippings and eyelashes. An optical wheel spins the artist forward toward age and backwards toward youth. Disembodied legs offer a Viewmaster slideshow within their pubic region. A Botticelli-influenced beauty without arms or legs implores, "please don't look up my skirt." Show and Tell, at the touch of a key, reveals a hidden visual and auditory message. Other pieces house live rats and doves. As the live animals move throughout the pieces the meaning alters, in the hand, a dove symbolizes hope, at the feet, humility. The rats climb the decayed pipes which are reminiscent of human organs and beg to be fed by through a tracheotomy pipe in the neck. The viewer in turn feeds Sir Reptitious' hungry ego. The cumulative work is a socio-psychological comment on human life in the 21st century: studies of morality, death, aging, sex, celebrity worship, and other issues — the common thread being a direct emotional connection between the art and the viewer.