“And upon each stood a siren, borne around its revolution.” This enigmatic title for artist Field Kallop’s installation at the newly opened ICA exhibit, Glitter and Folds, derives from book 10 of “Plato’s Republic” as explained by the artist during her installation performance on the show’s opening night. Her audience watched enthralled as she prepared her homemade pendulums, ten plastic bottles suspended from strings that are not directly attached to the ceiling but are instead connected to a horizontal network of strings. Fields is one of the four artists featured in this exhibition, all of which share an interest in rendering visible physical phenomena that are usually invisible. Fields, for example, draws inspiration from physics, and her installation piece pays homage to the forces of gravity and temporality. Like a scientist engaged in an experiment, she filled her pendulums with finely crushed glass powder and tested their rotational paths as she swung them. The pendulums, set into complex harmonic motion, trickled their glittering powder, creating finely textured elliptical forms. Another visual treat you’ll see in the exhibition is Crystal Campbell’s kaleidoscopic video, “On the Way to the Moon We Discovered the Earth.” Turn around, and you’ll confront Jayson Keeling in a video in which the artist’s body is targeted, suggesting social breakdown and urban violence. The presence of glitter and glass returns in the photographs of the fourth artist, Carter Mull, but his work reflects the look of shattered mirrors, the sense of a broken faith. What seems intangible becomes physically material in this show, so come prepared to be dazzled. If you missed opening night, then don’t miss Fields’ return to the ICA and upcoming performances on Wednesday, February 27 and Wednesday, March 13 at 6 p.m.

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