Situation Range at LegalArt: Time-Defying, Tree-Humping Brew Lovers Unite

Photos by Gabriella Joa Sanchez

"Eclipsed" by A.G. Viva.

A smartphone application displacing time and mashing it together; a half-naked girl making sweet dancey love to the remnants of a nearly 3,500-year-old tree; and a Corner full of drunken hipsters.

Visual oddities of every proportion were on display at the "Situation Range" exhibit curated by Southernmost Situations and hosted by LegalArt last Friday.

The one-night-only exhibition set out to offer a glimpse at the current landscape of video-based art in Miami. The event attracted guests with the promise of ocular gratification and sponsored booze, and it delivered.

Beverages provided by Peroni, Little Black Dress Vodka, and Perrier.

The entrance to the gallery held in the MacLeod Warehouse seemed quiet as folks calmly poured in to see the sculptures and installations. But once you hit the complimentary drinks table and the artwork, things quickly began to resemble a cross between an abandoned warehouse and the milk bar in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

"Some Song," a video-based sculpture by Jordan Marty.

Dylan Römer, the artist behind the Time Piles application, walked around filming attendees with his iPad, turning them into living art.

"The idea behind the app is it takes moments in time and starts to collage them together so that multiple moments get squeezed into one. It's about the idea of timelessness and living in the moment," Römer said.

There were definitely a few people living in that moment, particularly one special go-go dancer who put the moves on the recently deceased "Senator" tree.

Go-Go wood lovin' on Hannes Bend's piece, "Essence."

Up until January it was the fifth oldest tree in the world, but then some lady out for a nighttime stroll and some meth burned it down. Whoops.

In the grander scheme of things, German artist Hannes Bend turned the ridiculous tragedy into his masterful installation "Essence," where he uses a piece of the tree in his work to reference the recent video gone viral "tree-hugger" from last Ultra Music Festival.

The psychedelic weirdness continued just outside of the gallery at the Corner, conveniently located adjacent to the main exhibit.

The Corner channeling speakeasy vibes.

The installation "We Want Beer" by artist Clifton Childree had patrons of the bar both confused and amused by the piece as they drank.

"We Want Beer" by Clifton Childree.

The installation incorporates a digital lush desperate for a swig displayed through a run down cupboard.

His message, "We Want Beer," spelled out in pretzels adorning the frame, coaxed guests to drink up and enjoy the evening.

--Briana Saati

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