Martha Mysko—5x5 cube

Containment, control, concealment, dependency, memorialization, obsolescence, and erasure. Martha Mysko's new work, a 5x5 cube sheathed in clear vinyl, showcases a tight collection of objects all depending on one another in an intricate network of viewer associations. Throughout her work, Mysko carries a mixed bag of tricks including links to memory and forgetting, puzzles and critical observation, and a firm control over the dependency of a large array of elements. In our discussion of the work, ideas of light and memory were strong veins of dialogue. The cube, lit from inside—red and yellow—by an overhead projector, took on two personalities as the environmental life changed from day to night. These personalities line up with Mysko's previous works relating to home/residential spaces; furthermore, these personalities, coming from the daily light and living cycles a house goes through, seem to question who's home. The lights are on. Is someone home, is this a memory of events past, or is this a cleaver way of deterring trespassers. In this work, like others, Mysko utilizes a white washing technique to further remove information allowing the red and yellow light to wash over the installation, bathing it in an empty, questioning glow.