Art Review: The Black Acid Co-Op

Jars in the Attic

A couple weeks ago, I had the privilege of stumbling across a free art installation in New York at the Deitch Projects annex. I’ve never had to sign a waiver regarding injury  & death upon entering a gallery, so naturally I signed my life away and barreled through the garage door opening…

…into a dark hallway littered with old newspapers. The Black Acid Co-Op consists of a truly bizarre mix of scenes including an exploded meth lab, a disheveled library of spineless books with new titles handwritten on the naked binding, a fluorescently lit Japanese convenience store and a pristine wing of a museum.

A white room full of wigs

The whole atmosphere was fascinating & ominous. The exhibit somehow felt simultaneously kinetic & static, as if any moment the dark labyrinth of rooms would gulp down & digest visitors. Collaborators Justin Lowe & Jonah Freeman set up each of the 8 or 9 rooms as a  system of spaces that, despite the conflicting environments, unify themselves through subtle themes.

The attic full of jars & skulls certainly communicates a feeling of ritual. There was a dead coyote up there so real I wanted to touch it & did not for fear of being bitten. There was something magical about that scene. I expected all the items floating in jars to move & look back at me. Alchemy was also an apparent theme linking the attic, the meth labs littered with tubing, matches, beakers & sinus medication, the peeling walls of the warehouse & even the museum where insulating materials and wiring stood under glass.

Grime, filth and Sudafed boxes covered every available surface

I felt like I was walking through a crime scene. It was unsettling, impossible to get comfortable. Are the occupants coming back? Are the police? Is this stuff really done exploding?! The poor lighting, dark corners & filth made moving through the meth labs difficult. Compound that with the fact that the labs appeared to be inside some kind of cross between a dorm room & a 1970′s trailer home & I really couldn’t move through the place fast enough, literally & figuratively.

Suddenly somewhere completely different...

When my discomfort started to redline, suddenly I found myself someplace completely different. An art museum where everything was crisp, impeccably clean & safely behind glass…which was strangely even creepier. The museum seemed to be the most “normal” area of the installation & I couldn’t figure it out. The bits of wall & architectural materials under glass tied it to the rest of the rooms & kept it within the communal thematic structure. The contradictions ran the horizon of white wall meeting red carpet: the museum fit nicely while not really fitting at all.

High ceilings, walls peeling...

This room was empty except for what appeared to be a small microphone dangling above our heads. I’m not sure who, if anyone, was listening in. I was more concerned with the possibility finding a dead body rolled up in a red carpet heap in the corner.

Not your typical art museum gift shop...

Not a gift shop at all, in fact. The convenience store, located in the “basement” of the installation appeared bright, colorful & cheery like any Chinatown hole in the wall. Except if you actually looked around, you noticed the pornographic airbrushed T-shirts hanging on the wall & the window displays filled with gnarled branches & shrubbery.

The Black Acid Co-Op was one of the most engaging & thrilling art installations I’ve seen in a while, right up there with Opera for a Small Room. I’m tempted to describe it as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” horror movie. Instead of yelling at the half-dressed girl on-screen, you’re silently directing your own narrative psychosis. I was ready to leave. Like a funhouse or a maze of mirrors, you’re laughing on the outside  while you’re in it, but the moment you cross back out into reality you breathe a secret sigh of relief.

[Click here for more photos from the Black Acid Co-Op]

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