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Front Room Gallery: "Super Defense Force" Amusement Park in Cardboard

by David Pambianchi

Mark Stilwell & Ferris wheel Photo: David Pambianchi

Merry-go-rounds, the Ghost House, cotton-candy smiles, these we remember always. The Mark Stilwell exhibit displayed at Brooklyn's Front Room Gallery off the corner of Roebling and Metropolitan Avenue, beckons a pause in thought, makes a collage of time, layered and spread about for our amusement. Images inspired by Astroland, a defunct reanimation of once renowned Coney Island, stir memories of the distant and recent past, while fighting robot figures conjure speculation of future society, and leaves us in the middle to ponder.

"Red fish, Blue fish." Photo: David Pambianchi

A fitting Williamsburg location seething with New York History and transition, like a Ferris wheel, the neighborhood shifts about, horse wagon, subway, automobile, once an Indian fishing trail, then a Dutch farmer's trade route, ship building to include the civil war USS Monitor in nearby Greenpoint, a shore-side mansion for a railroad giant, an industrial complex, a post WWII burnt and abandoned, run-down ruined area, and now up again, revitalization, a rebirth of buildings, parks and businesses, and a "cutting-edge" art culture.

Mark refers to his sculpture, "It's a metaphor for change."

Haven't we met somewhere before? Photo: David Pambianchi

Prefaced by a neatly green-kept Ascenti Square (dedicated to a family that lost two of four brothers to WWI), the building's cafes with unique decors and arched windows delight. Exterior walls of painted brick by "YMIcrew" boast fine art work of surreal street scenes. So drop by opening nights for Trapeze Performance art. Fun house, ghost house, our lives, like Ferris wheels, fly up and down, merry-go-rounds, spin, turn round and around again, perhaps, pausing, to stop for ice cream. Hop the bus, step in for a ride.

Front Room Gallery 147 Roebling St.
Sept. 14th- Oct. 14th 2007
Fri.-Sun. 1-6
(718) 782-2556
www.frontroom.org