Last December and January, to celebrate the new year, Kansas City Art Institute graduates Brendan Meara and Benjamin Thorp (class of 2004) took part in a two-person show at Paragraph Gallery that was intended to examine the beauty and narrative potential of overlooked objects. This included one of Meara’s sculptures, an original joke engraved in a slab of flagstone -- we loved how he was redefining what deserved concentrated effort and permanence. But we've deemed their show the best because it was the most disturbing. Thorp built a tunnel from filthy found mattresses (walls and ceiling, thank you very little); the soundtrack to the audience's adventure was provided by real-time sound converted from the live bacteria in residence. The installation, titled “ProLife 2005,” made us want to throw up. Then shower. Then throw up again. Congratulations, boys.
