Timbre: A Solo Exhibition by Cara Despain

This show of new work by occasional City Weekly contributor Cara Despain utilizes the range of her artistic talents: drawing, sculpture, “contradictory materials” and contemplation of loneliness and passive tension. It’s all tied together with a stop-motion animation video she assembled to capture these disparate elements.

Miniature sculptures made of clay, wood and concrete are the subject of the animation, and they relate to her drawings—small animals with sand falling on them, as though the sands of time were dropped from the sky. The installation will also incorporate preliminary storyboard drawings and live audio on the opening evening, providing a background score.

As in her previous exhibitions, there is a lightness and tentativeness. The exploration of “passive tension” is perhaps the most interesting thing about this show—not building to a climax or a mark of discomfort, but existing as an underlying rhythm.

“Timbre” describes the show well: It’s all about atmosphere, a subtle sensibility and relative quietude that isn’t silence, but is the sound of the space, the ambience of the site and also the sounds of viewers—their voices, footfalls and aural effluvia, collected, distorted and played back in “real time,” adding that layer of texture to the already-layered environment. This kind of art show is experimental in the best sense, manipulating variables of different artistic media and observing the results, of which you are a not-insignificant part. (Brian Staker)

Timbre: A Solo Exhibition by Cara Despain @ Stolen & Escaped Gallery, 177 E. Broadway (downstairs), 415-624-9093, Sept. 16-Oct. 15, reception Sept. 16, 6-9 p.m., free. StolenAndEscaped.wordpress.com, CaraDespain.com.