The artists in Subversive Complicity borrow from the aesthetics and methodologies of disciplines outside the fine arts (e.g., engineering, political activism, architecture/urban planning, etc.) to create hybrid visual and theoretical languages. While much of the work in Subversive Complicity entails documentation of the process through which the piece was made or of the life cycle of the piece itself, the most interesting pieces probe the intersection of process, product, and community. Following the curators' interdisciplinary query, the exhibition itself resembles a trade show where the individual artists have displays to show their products, documentation, and to allow for some degree of interaction.

Sherri Lynn Wood, The Mantra Trailer, 2006.

Sherri Lynn Wood's Mantra Trailer probes the intersections of the personal, public, theological, political, and art. Having received both a MFA in sculpture and a Masters in Theology Studies, Wood is equipped with an unusual skill and knowledge set that informs her work in surprising and refreshing ways. At The Lab, Wood presents documentation of the Mantra Trailer, both aural and photographic, and invites her viewers to write out mantras. Otherwise the Mantra Trailer is a roving 1972 breadbox trailer that allows participants to enter and record a mantra. The mantras are then played over a loud speaker or appear as ever changing plastic marquis letters on the side of the trailer. While Wood uses Mantra Trailer to explore the idea of a Mantra (etymologically meaning Mind Tool), some of her participants use it as a confessional booth, genie lamp, or open mic for poetic musings and comic relief. While Wood's Mantra Trailer borrows from the roadside evangelism and folksy aesthetics attributed to the Bible Belt, it is pliable enough to allow for regionalist interpretations as it travels throughout the US. By not pining Mantra Trailer down to any organized religion, Wood's piece also may act as critique/endorsement of new age religious/spiritual experimentation so popularized and commercialized on the West Coast. Wood views her Mantra Trailer as a tool through which her participants may voice their own opinions in the media soaked landscape of jingles, slogans, and propaganda. In addition to the political and public aspects of this piece, Mantra Trailer addresses the personal on multiple fronts. On a literal level the viewer is invited to express, declare, or reveal their own mantra. Metaphorically the trailer be seen as a representation of interiority and the body. On Wood's website www.MantraTrailer.com she writes:

The Mantra Trailer deals with the terrain of landscape, globalization and isolation through the scale of the body. The physical trailer mirrors the body's process of manifestation. It has an interior space for contemplation and authorship and an exterior site of broadcast, presentation, and dialogue. As voice and language pass through the operation of the trailer, the private monologue surprisingly reveals itself as social discourse.

To follow Wood's analogy, the trailer, like the individual is mobile and subject to theological and existential transformations through time. While Mantra Trailer may lack aesthetic appeal, Wood has successfully addressed theological and political issues, and avoids the platitudes that can spoil work of this nature.

Subversive Complicity was on view at The Lab May 1-24, 2008.