Sunday, March 9, 2014 p.E3
by Mark Jenkins
Jason Sho Green and Victoria Shaheen
Entire, if tiny, worlds are conjured from found objects in Morton Fine Art’s “Reveries,” installations and more by Jason Sho Green & Victoria Shaheen. Green brings everyday stuff to life with small motors or simply the drafts that cause dangling objects to dance in midair. Mounted on the wall or on six scaffolds, the Japan-born Brooklynite’s pieces make elementary yet slightly ominous gestures. Two knives flick through space, a fishhook dangles and a wooden block, a face carved on the side, repeatedly traverses a prone body, each time almost hitting it. There’s a hint of slapstick to Green’s everyday-
surrealist vignettes.
Shaheen, too, works with commonplace things, but she employs them as molds for multiple porcelain pieces. She casts versions of Smurfs figurines, Darth Vader cups and miniature TV sets, all in ivory, pale pink and light green, and then stacks them into latter-day totems. The Corcoran-educated Detroiter also makes single-item sculptures, such as an ice cream cone topped by a scoop of ceramic green, combined with sheets of translucent acrylic that cast colored shadows. These add a few watery shades to Shaheen’s array of pop-culture pastels.
Reveries: Jason Sho Green and Victoria Shaheen
On view through March 18 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW;
202-628-2787; mortonfineart.com
Morton Fine Art: curator's notes 