Recent Russian Books on Art, Science and Technology (1994–1996) by Leonardo International Co-Editor Bulat M. Galeyev and Book Review Panelist Vladimir G. Chudnovsky. (review)

if not more important than the objects and he strengthens the twentieth-century notion of the disappearance of objects in art. From an art-history point ofview, the images on the Shadow Server resemble Moholy-Nagy photograms, capturing light in a delicate and subtle way and bringing it to the computer screen. These images re-introduce contemplation , freezing light and time in a fragile balance in a medium where flow and movement are the norm. After a short while, one no longer wonders about the nature of the objects behind the shadows, or about what would bring the "Sixth button." One just enjoys the complexity and simplicity of the shadows , getting lost in their depth. The computer screen has become pure light, a shadow. EXHIBITIONS ORGANICALLY GROWN Center for the Arts, Verba Buena Gardens , San Francisco, CA, U.S.A., 12 March-l june 1997. http:// www.YerbaBuenaArts.org Reviewed Uy RogerF. Malina, Centerfor Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics, 2150 Kittridge St., B(ffkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.Email :. This exhibit, showing the works of four artists-Tony Bellaver, Nole Giulini, Laura Stein and Olav Westphalen-addressed questions about the natural world and biology. Tony Bellaver's installation consisted of trees in various states ofgrowth, from seeds to sapling. In each part of the installation, loudspeakers were pointed at the plants. The plants received a broadcasted stream ofvoices that explained and described the world they were growing in and what they could expect in their coming lives. Nole Giulini created a number of sculptures that she called puppets and which were made from large layers of fungal skin. She grew the fungus in her studio, then dried the layers and varnished them. Laura Stein created plants through grafting and through imposing constraints on the growing fruits and vegetables. In the exhibit, she displayed photographs of vegetables she grew inside plastic molds that were in the shapes of cartoon ani156 Reviews mals. Olav Westphalen showed a video presentation of himself telling sciencerelated jokes. In conjunction with the exhibit, the gallery hosted a series of outdoor concerts, "Guts, Gourds and Skins," that featured music generated by the use of organic materials. The works were thought-provoking, ironic. They seemed almost uncomfortable with the topic of our interaction with nature, posing a question mark. As we react to the recent news of the first cloning of animals, we realize that the human race is now faced with the choice between intervening in its own evolution and creating new taboos. These artists manipulate biological material for their artistic ends. The artworks were displayed in the hospitallike sterility of the modern art-gallery (white walls, glass, sleek floors), an architectural environment as abstracted from nature as one can imagine, an environment with fewer human comforts than any scientific laboratory. With the current rate of extinction of species on this planet, one can imagine a far-distant future when nature will be confined to museums and zoos-perhaps we should feel uncomfortable about our relationship to the organic world around us. Editor's Note: For information on the Leonardo Art and Biology project, see . LIGHT PERFORMANCE Moscow,january 1997. Reviewed Uy Irina Presnetsova, Union ofDesigners ofRussia, Arbatskaya Sq. 1/2, Moscow 121019, Russia. This exhibition, curated by Russian kinetic artist and architect Viacheslav Kolejchuk, took place in Moscow in january 1997. Approximately 100 compositions , created by seven Moscow artists , used visual effects of light and motion as their central themes. The artists were Kolejchuk, Anrei Topunov, German Vinogradov, Boris Stuchebrukov, Valery Cherkashin, Alexei Shulgin, Alexander Lavrentiev and]ohn Kazins, a former U.S.S.R. citizen. The works included a variety of media : photography, video, sculpture, objects , motorized constructions and suspended mobiles. They demonstrated different artistic techniques that make use of light: flexible light and color scenes in films and video installations, slide-images projected onto mirrors in the works by Shulgin, thematic installations by Vinogradov and shadow-theater under the Sun in a photographic series entitled 'Traps for Light and Shadows" by Lavrentiev. No doubt Kolejchuk and Stuchebrukov were the leading figures here, not only because of the number of their works exhibited but also because of their versatility. Kolejchuk exhibited "photopaintings "-computer-aided compositions created...