If you did not make the opening of Darsha Hewitt’s Electrostatic Bell Choir at Skol, you may have done yourself and the artist a service.

That is not to say that Darsha Hewitt’s first solo exhibition was not a success.

The installation itself is not bad. The desired enchanting effect, however, may have been lost among the cacophonic hoards of people bumping around in the darkness.

Struggling to get past the line-up at the bar, I pushed through the heavy black, theoretically “noise-cancelling” curtains and entered a darkened room scattered, almost excessively, with stacks of vintage Cathode Ray Tube televisions, timed to light up in random intervals.

A small tinkling of bells shuddered to life to the right of me as my ears contended with the pervading din beyond the curtain. A screen warmed up and emitted a soft glow against the darkness, backlighting a Smetanka-like arrangement of epileptic electroscopic bells that seemed to be arrested in an orgasmic electroshock against the captive screen.

A Pavlovian urgency herded the viewers through the curtain and into the room, like slow-moving moths to light, as a new crop of bells rang up from a pile of TVs across the room. It only took minutes before the gallery had heated to an uncomfortably humid climate, the high-pitched frequency emitting from the multiple tubes bearing down on my temples.

My suggestion is to experience the exhibition in solitude, (and to not miss the innocuous graphite works in the annex to the rear of the gallery). In the moments before the crowds poured through the curtains, I could sense the magical appeal of Hewitt’s “interest in demystifying the invisible systems” that shoot and hum and whir unawares throughout our homes. By harnessing the potential of static electricity, she manages to evoke a sense of wonder and anticipation that I imagine was felt nearly three hundred years ago, when static energy was first converted into mechanical electricity.

Electrostatic Bell Choir fits nicely into the greater Elektra14 programming, by allowing a fresh young electronic artist like Hewitt to test her mettle in the solo realm. I highly suggest taking this one in, and invigorating yourself to the nostalgic wonders that can still be mined from abandoned technology.

Centre des arts actuels Skol, space 314
Darsha Hewitt
Electrostatic Bell Choir
May 2 – June 1, 2013
www.skol.ca