633 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles CA

Upon entering House, we traverse a foyer-like hallway, in which sit a row of faintly buzzing overhead projectors casting odd and familiar images on the opposite wall. As we walk between the line of antiquated and funny machines and their pictures, we hear the muffled sound of music emanating from another room, and feel ourselves welcomed and a little altered, as though we’ve undergone a comic rite of passage. We are conscious of having gone from one state to another, from outside to within, and this feeling colors our encounters with the exhibition’s sculptures, paintings, and films—works whose utter unpretentiousness bely the material meticulousness with which they have been composed and built. In this show, and in all Aran’s work, playfulness and drama, nostalgia and wit, awkwardness and finesse all comfortably cohabitate.