Cotton Candy

Gehr uses a minidigital recorder to look back on the Machine Age in the form of San Franciscos soontobeshuttered Musee Mecanique For slightly more than an hour Cotton Candy documents this venerable collection of coinoperated mechanical toysincluding an entire circusmainly in closeup isolating particular details as he alternates between ambient and postdubbed or no sound By treating the Musees cast of synchronized figures as puppets the artist is making a showbut is it his or theirs Gehrs selective take on the arcade renders it all the more spooky Theres a sense in which Cotton Candy is a gloss on the moment in The Rules of the Game when the musicboxcollecting viscount unveils his latest and most elaborate acquisition It also brings to mind the climax of AI The DV of the future tenderly regards the more human machine of the past J Hoberman The Village Voice