becoming -gal slide – CARLA BENGTSON

Becoming Colorful Becoming Warm

Sub title - media, date, etc.

For this exhibition a mid-winter gallery in Brooklyn was turned into a human-scaled vivarium, with a written response by Philip Scher.

Standing Out Blending In - "When to show and when not to show? What is the power of display versus the power of blending in? …Put a chameleon in New York and surround it with the stuff of a human world, an urban ecosystem, reflecting human processes and aesthetic choices. What are the options? How does it know what to display? What is danger or safety in this radical context? How is the biosemiotic system of the lizard disrupted by such contextual shifts and alien encounters? And after all the color shifts, which one is the real chameleon?" - Phil Scher

Phil Scher is an anthropologist, culture scholar, and a contributing editor and writer for Cabinet Magazine.

Becoming Colorful Becoming Warm

Amilobe panther chameleon, UV lamps, warming lamps, foam, paint, mirrors, glass, video, tree branches, crickets, 2015-16

Chameleons communicate with one another by changing color. The gallery offered areas keyed to the chameleon’s most excited states. The lizard could access, and respond to, these areas via a network of branches. mirrored glass rocks provoked territorial displays, and foam rocks and heat lamps provided basking areas for human visitors..

In collaboration with Peter Wetherwax

Becoming Colorful Becoming Warm

Amilobe panther chameleon, UV lamps, warming lamps, foam, paint, mirrors, glass, video, tree branches, crickets, 2015-16

Chameleons communicate with one another by changing color. The gallery offered areas keyed to the chameleon’s most excited states. The lizard could access, and respond to, these areas via a network of branches. mirrored glass rocks provoked territorial displays, and foam rocks and heat lamps provided basking areas for human visitors.