SONGS of a DECOY Location: TBD Opening Reception: TBD On View: TBD Artists: Rusty Adelstein, Jonathan Dinetz, Aydan Hüseynli, Cameron Lasson, and Kira Wilson

One autumn day, a small squirrel family came across a very special tree. This tree stood twice as tall as the others in the neighborhood, with bark unusually smooth and needles unusually green. It’s towering stature reminded Mrs. Squirrel of the old-growth forests of her youth–a perfect picture of sylvan splendor. She moved her family in promptly afterward.
   They found their new home to be quite convenient. While other trees sagged and severed in winter storms, theirs stood tall and unmoving. When they would leave their nuts in the hollows of the tree, they would return to find them already preheated, sizzling even. Plus, the cell reception was excellent.
   One afternoon, an old owl approached the family forebodingly. He warned that their tree might not be what it seems. He said it came to be in an unusual way: brought in five pieces on huge semi trucks, and assembled with a crane. The tree, which should’ve taken 100 years to grow, manifested in a matter of weeks thanks to a flock of machines and men. He warned the squirrel family that their tree could be demonic.
“I'm sick of his conspiracies!” proclaimed Baby Squirrel
. ‘Perhaps our tree is a little odd,’ the squirrels admitted to  themselves.
‘It does like to hum strangely from time-to-time. But no tree is perfect,’ Besides, the squirrels found the white noise to be soothing; it reminded Mrs. Squirrel of the wind blowing through the pines in those forests of her youth. ‘It can’t be demonic,’ the squirrels affirmed to each other.
   The owl was a kook, he could never know in any meaningful way the delight of living in their tree. He had never experienced the seductively predictable placement of the branches, that allowed one to leap from bough to bough in a trance-like rhythm. He had never been soothed by the cool touch of the trunk on his paws after a long day, or cradled in the buzzing warmth of its hollows at night. The squirrels brushed off the old owl, after all, this was their beloved home he was talking about.

Songs of a Decoy features the work of 5 makers reckoning with their place in the contemporary West, a culture defined by simulation, scrambled timelines, and material abstraction that borders the supernatural. Using domestic objects as stage players, the works engage these cultural forces by recasting their logic: silicon masquerading as decaying logs, a mechanical facade of flames, and bobby pins fossilized in amber included. Each work proposes its own negotiation of this drama, asking whether we adopt refusal, indifference, or embrace in the face of unreality.