This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 29, 2012 - The works by New York based Tommy Hartung and Uri Aran on view at White Flag Projects give an idea of the artists' unusual working relationship.
They're not exactly collaborators, producing things together that bear both names. It's probably more accurate to say that the sensibilities, interests and outlook of one artist bleed gently into that of the other as they make their individual works.
One gleans as much from reading "Tommy Hartung & Uri Aran in Conversation," a published transcript that accompanies the exhibition and nicely illuminates the videos, sculpture, drawings and projected slides on display, which are all slightly nostalgic and sadly magical, tinged with both humor and regret.
Ivy Cooper is the Beacon visual arts reviewer and a professor of art at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.