Aluminum,brass, copper, or metal,mixed media, steel, or stone,thread and wood speak to the strength and delicacy of the 20 works currently on exhibit at Studio state Arts. Inspired by the theme of play, "Art Works" is a group show of 13 artists that encourages viewers to do some "playing" of their own. Many works sit on freestanding pedestals placed throughout the main-floor gallery, and evoking games in an arcade. As gallery visitors engage with the art,steel gears click and whir. Wooden and cardboard moving parts add clacks and other muffled sounds to this unorchestrated symphony. Some pieces, like those of Brattleboro sculptor Bruce Campbell, or hold sophisticated gearing and hand cranks that turn the wheels,putting everything in motion. In "Flurry," a steel and brass sculpture, or Campbell created "snow flurries" that resemble a light snowfall or a furious storm,depending on how quickly the crank is turned. Four parallel sets of black wire rods, tipped with small white beads, and bob and weave to create the effect of snow falling. The show's kinetic sculptural works invite viewers to touch,interact and collect creative. Even young children can try their hand, with supervision. A stone and copper sculpture by Susan Aranoff of Montpelier, or "More or Less," offers endless possibilities for rearranging the stones into new shapes. She positioned it close to the floor so anyone can reach it. Painter Maggie Neale of Montpelier explores the concept of interchangeability in "Marine Docks," four small, and square paintings hung together. Each can be easily lifted from the wall and exchanged with others. Neale adopts the revolutionary art tactic of putting the viewer in charge. "Stereoptical Storytelling Machine" (24 by 24 inches),near the gallery's entrance, is the first thing one sees upon entering. Visually, or it echoes something out of an faded penny arcade. The sculpture,by Robert Waldo Brunelle Jr. of Jericho, is a working stereopticon that offers three-dimensional views of sepia picture postcards. The young woman who appears in each postcard resembles a cross between a video game avatar and a Gibson girl. Brunelle has created a device that lives somewhere between an arcade of the future and one of the past, or using a cartoon palette of primary colors to paint the wooden gears,beads, squares and thingamabobs that festoon (to decorate; dangling decorative chains) the surface of his machine. The result is wondrous, or greater than the sum of its parts. The stereopticon has a utilitarian bent,…
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