For much of the 19th century, Baltimore’s Phoenix Shot Tower produced millions of “drop” shots—ammunition made by dropping molten lead from a platform hundreds of feet in the air into a vat of cold water waiting below.
In 2010, the 215-foot Tower was the site of Hope Against Hope, one of the most imaginative art exhibitions Baltimore has experienced in recent memory. For it, The Carroll Museum, which cares for the Tower, and Curators Michael Benevento and Andrew Shenker, welcomed Baltimore’s artists to reinterpret this historic, quirky space.
Several pieces on the ground floor worked together beautifully to remind us of the production and use of drop shots. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of orange-and-white, bulls-eye prints by Lou Joseph were strewn across the floor, one overlapping the other. May Wilson’s cast-metal fish appeared across the targets and clustered in a darkened doorway.
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Rata-tat-tat! Water, dripping from a container 13 stories above, tapped out a rhythm on Dustin Wong’s installation, a single drum in the center of the circular space. Dustin reminded us of the sounds that making a shot in the 19th century created—or maybe of the sounds heard by living targets.
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Throughout the show, Eric Leshinsky concealed cameras; one in fact was hidden in a flashlight that hung above a desk—the center of his installation, Security for All. Four computer screens on a guard desk broadcasted changing views of visitors. Even my feet and legs became the subject for Eric’s cameras.
Determined to see more, but slightly terrified by the rickety metal staircase, I ascended to the second level, a narrow balcony that held a new set of wonders: Robby Rackleff’s dizzying animation and works that invite active participation such as Marian Glebes’ drawings/tracings of the Tower and Patrick Caulfield’s elegantly carved wooden work.
http://www.vimeo.com/ http://vimeo.com/18278588Laure Drogoul’s projection of flying birds spoke to Anthony Boening’s silent but dignified carvings. Stewart Watson continued the aviary theme by arranging delicate steel arcs against a brick wall. The sharp ends of the arcs were poised on the cement floor, resting in metal balls, or stuck into black velvet pillows with white bird feathers bursting from their broken seams.
If you missed this great Baltimore art moment, hold on! Current Space is working on a spring performance with bands inside the Shot Tower.
Doreen Bolger is always on the move because she can’t stop seeing, supporting, and writing about the arts in and around Baltimore City. Her lengthy love affair for the arts began in Long Island when her father, an executive in the textile industry, brought home breathtaking fabrics every night from the heart of the garment district. 