Maggot is a trap. The exhibition—a new installation by Sydney-based artist Sidney McMahon—lures you in with a sultry blue light. The hue evokes the familiar blue of the Windows error message, and its even diffusion across the UTS Gallery’s space transfigures its rectangle box into a virtual holding zone, a scene of suspended operations awaiting the user’s intervention.
The exhibition further draws you in with a triptych of glowing screens, which hang from the ceiling in the centre of the gallery. As you position yourself in front of the screens, a crisp white text politely explains the rules for this interactive work, narrated by a deep modulated voice that emanates from the wall behind you. The narrator invites you to strap on a headset that will sync with your brain. The headset contains a sensor, the narrator explains, that should be fixed to the back of your scalp, close to your skin: “Can you feel it?”
Nick Croggon is an art historian, writer and editor based on Gadigal and Wangal land. He is Events and Programs Officer at the Power Institute, and is completing a PhD at Columbia University, New York.
