With only a few exceptions, SFMoma has remained detached from the tangle of socially oriented projects that have embroiled the art community of the Bay Area in recent years. So it's particularly interesting to see the work of Phil Collins in the "New Work" section of the museum. On one hand, the presence of this project underscores SFMoma's "international focus" which more often than not translates as distance from the themes (and artists) being addressed in the Bay Area. On the other hand it could be a sign that SFMoma is starting to come around.

Former curator Jill Dawsey presents episode two of Collins' three part karaoke videos (shot in three different cities) titled "The World Won't Listen." The 58min series of one-shot documents is comprised of Turkish volunteers performing songs from The Smiths album of the same name. Accompanying the video are stark three-color wheat-paste posters used to solicit participants for the project. In the posters Collins calls for "the shy, the dissatisfied, narcissists, and anyone who's ever wished they could be someone else for a night." Dünya Dinlemiyor, as the title is translated, transforms the misanthropic sentiments of Morrissey's lyrics into spectacle, an act of people-watching not unlike Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra's split screen video "Buzzclub". As Jerry Saltz pointed out "Buzzclub reminds you how great it is to watch other people dance." But the response to Buzzclub is much more subtle – quiet fascination rather than the finger pointing and laughter witnessed on a busy day at SFMoma.

Perhaps, the misanthropes from the 80s have grown up and have pulled together the courage to test out the spot light. What does that pop gloom of the Smiths feel like in Turkey anyway? The last few moments of each performance, after the final chords have faded away and our hapless volunteer is left dangling in a moment of silence, were perhaps the most telling of each singer's personality: some stayed hypnotized by the lyrics, a few were relieved, and others spaced out - in shock of what they had just committed. The posterized color of the backdrop for the videos – tropics, mountains or forest – seem to point to a transnational cultural dislocation: Turkish people sing 80s brit pop on a background of the tropics (and we're watching it in San Francisco).

While ultimately I prefer Vancouver based artist Althea Thauberger's work in the same vein, which incidentally was shown locally last year at both the Wattis (Baja to Vancouver) and at the Berkeley Art Museum (Matrix), Collin's work has a peculiar strength. What bothers me is not the work itself but rather SFMoma's tendency to ride the trends of the rest of the art establishment – so "afraid to be wrong they are never right." (what a curator once said of Moma Ny). But minor indictments of the conservative mausoleum aside, let's hope this is a small step toward new adventures at SFMoma.