Joshua Goode: “Beside You in Time”

Joshua Goode has made ruins of his life. For his site-specific installation, “Beside You in Time,” he transformed the ArtStorm galleries into what looks like the remains of an ancient city. As viewers enter the gallery, they become anthropologists discovering a forgotten -culture.

“[It’s] a new mythology,” Goode says. The myth is based on Goode’s life. Murals depicting shadowy figures and hieroglyphics cover the walls. Rooms are filled with stacks of burned-up crates and rusted metal boxes covered in chicken wire and full of worn-down children’s toys. Golden figures resembling the preserved bodies found at Pompeii litter the floors. Wooden poles (formerly telephone poles) and rusted metal pipes extend from floor to ceiling, furthering the belief that you’ve just entered a former tomb or fortress. And outside the gallery stands a 20-foot sculpture made of large wooden panels and more telephone poles.

The objects and drawings are cryptic. Goode uses everything from found wood to gold leafing to his own hair to create each piece, and it’s up to the viewer to piece the story together. The show opens from 7 to 10 p.m. The show runs noon to 7 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, through December 27. 4828 Caroline. For information, visit www.artstormhouston.com. Free.
Saturdays, Sundays. Starts: Nov. 29. Continues through Dec. 27, 2008