Dreaming in Miniature

Directed Dreaming, the title of Kevin and Jennifer McCoy's current exhibition at Postmasters gallery in New York, refers to the ability to will oneself to dream about situations in order to resolve them in one's waking life. For the four impressive new sculptures included in the show, the artists blended cinematic and historical imagery with personal material to explore anxiety, desire, and memory. The two major pieces both feature projections, created and edited in real-time, that take intricately crafted miniature film sets as their source material. In the two-sided projection 'Dream Sequence,' a tableau of characters swirls above the small-scale versions of the two artists as they lie in bed. 'Double Fantasy II (sex)' presents their adolescent longings. Beach blanket intrigue and rock concert make-out sessions unfold in a procession of images streamed from a set in which the artists' teenage fantasies have been meticulously reconstructed. Although without specific quotation from TV or cinema (a common theme among their previous projects), the works continue the artists' investigation of the ways media fuels our experiences and desires. - David Senior