Visual Art

Art After Hours: Where to Go This First Thursday

Museums are free, galleries stay open late. So…many…choices…

By Suzanne Beal June 2, 2011

Give the tilted house a whirl at Fun House.

Photo courtesy Western Bridge.

Can’t wait for the fair? Find serious fun and games at Western Bridge. All the weirdness of the carnival midway is at the exhibit Fun House, open through the end of July. See it tonight at the First Thursday Art Walk.

At the center of this six-person group show is Julian Hoever’s Demon Hill, a massive plywood structure—20 feet long—that has viewers reeling like they’ve stepped off a roller coaster. With angled shelving, mounted ping-pong balls that seem to defy gravity, and nary a straight plane, the Demon Hill house spins visitors off axis. You’re welcome to climb on in; the show turns everyone into a participant.

The rest of the exhibit is stuffed with similar flights of fancy: floor-to-ceiling black-and-white stripes, a quietly orbiting star in a cage, and a reflective op-art panel tilted against a wall. The pieces combine madcap absurdity with the long tradition of Northwest mysticism.

Fun and games? Yes, but without the chance of getting cotton candy stuck in your hair.

Fun House is on display at Western Bridge through July 30.

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