The imaginative work from Chad Campbell, exhibiting this month in the Harrison Center’s Underground Gallery, brings sculptural pieces and three dimensional hanging works into an immersive environment that strikes a balance between childlike wonder and inherent danger.

Use of light and shadow in the dimmed gallery lends a quality of mystery to the exhibit. The electrical and industrial elements used to construct the small-scale sculptures spark a charming narrative, as if the figurines wound themselves together and took on animation in the back corner of a shop. It is easy to imagine the mobile pieces with a mind of their own, bending into new positions when the viewer turns away. In fact, some of them do, although it’s in controlled spins from nearly invisible suspension from the gallery ceiling.

There is the visible piece, consisting of wrapped wire figures and hanging shapes, and there is the second, created by the colorful lighting on the wall directly behind. A show of miniature acrobats dances behind its physical counterpart, mimicking its movements, but inspiring a completely new perspective.

Light and positioning play as much a role in “Acrocontortional Luminarium” as they would in a live show. Some of the miniature figures are hidden at first glance, so connected are they to the environment that suspends them just as a performer disappears into their act.

Campbell describes the exhibit as a “tribute to those who push their bodies and minds to the limit in order to perform for others.” In a good performance, the audience will never see the fear, only a seamless delivery. The figure strapped to a rocket or cannon is one of the most overt images in the show to hint at the danger embedded in the spectacle— the risk that makes the audience buy into the drama of a daring leap. These pieces and the show overall, which includes bodily contortions and daring motorcycle jumps, pull back the curtain of the proximity of disaster to the wonder of the act.

“Acrocontortional Luminarium” will be on display in the Harrison Center’s Underground Gallery for the months of July and August. The exhibit can be viewed in-person by appointment, and in our online gallery, where all pieces are available for purchase.