Chris Burden, You’ll Never See My Face in Kansas City (November 6, 1971) [Henry Art Gallery, Seattle WA, May 7-Aug 21] Courtesy Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A. Collection: Gilbert and Lila Silverman, Southfield, Michigan

Graciela Carnevale, Encierro y escape (Entrapment and escape) (1968), documentation of an action at the Experimental Art Cycle, Rosario, Argentina [Henry Art Gallery, Seattle WA, May 7-Aug 21] Courtesy Archivo Graciela Carnevale. Photo: Carlos Militello

The Talent Show examines a range of cultural, emotional and ethical experiences that emerge from the dichotomy between the hope for fame and the desire for privacy. This interpersonal dynamic sets the tone for the artworks in this thought-provoking show.

Organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, this exhibit includes 18 artists whose early work examines the line between anonymity and public participation.

In 1983, Sophie Calle found a stranger’s address book on the street and photocopied every page. After returning the book, Calle had conversations with the contacts about the book’s unaware owner and published the accounts in a Paris newspaper. In Graciela Carnevale’s dramatic 1968 piece, she quietly left her own exhibition opening and locked viewers inside. The event was documented in a series of photographs taken by a friend of the Argentinian artist to capture the reactions and eventual escape (through a broken window) of the gallery visitors.

In David Lamelas’s Limit of a Projection I (1967), an alluring spotlight was cast in an empty space, ambiguously drawing gallery visitors to stand beneath. Similarly, Piero Manzoni’s (1933-1963) pedestal piece Base magica – Scultura Vivente (1961) attracts audiences to stand upon it like a living piece of sculpture. Peter Campus’s Shadow Projection (1974) invites audiences to face a camera where their images become visible only in their own shadows.

Allyn Cantor