'Prediction Error'

Fifty years ago, Beth Dow's dad, Ron, also an experimental photographer, had an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her recently opened Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program show "Prediction Error" oddly carries on some of the things that her dad was interested in, like thinking about the photograph as both object and image. Her investigations come through in the processes of printing photos themselves, many of which trick the eye. In one piece seen from afar, a rectangle on the wall looks like it is a photo of flaking drywall, but up close we see that it actually is three-dimensional — not an image at all. On a desk near to that piece, viewers can sit down and flip through various colors of the actual flat images of that piece. In the main room, Dow displays highly detailed photos of the Badlands where the sky is totally blacked out, making these images seem as if they're totally manufactured on CAD. But they are not — she was there, and she took these photos. What's real anymore, and what's just a prediction error — like when your mind tells your foot to step up onto a curb that somehow isn't there? Don't fall on your face. (Tue.-Wed., Sat. 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; Thu.-Fri. 10 a.m. -9 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. -5 p.m. closed Mon. Ends Oct. 28. Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2400 3rd Av. S., Mpls. Free. 612-870-3000 or new.artsmia.org.)

alicia eler