Cardiff and Miller
A close-up of a section of “The Marionette Maker,” by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, at Luhring Augustine. Credit: Emon Hassan for The New York Times
LUHRING AUGUSTINE Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are presenting the most entertaining and technically impressive show in Chelsea right now. The first of two installations is “The Marionette Maker,” a tour de force of mechanically animated puppetry inhabiting a travel trailer. A diminutive theater built into the caravan’s exterior presents a little man playing the piano and a tiny diva who sings an aria from Tchaikovsky’s opera “None but the Lonely Heart.” Inside, along with dozens of moving puppets, a life-size woman cast from Ms. Cardiff’s body dozes like Sleeping Beauty. It is altogether magical. “Experiment in F# Minor” (2013) consists of 72 old speakers, of many different makes and sizes, on a plywood table. Out of them pours music sounding like part of a rock opera, filling the gallery with physically palpable sound and transporting symphonic harmonies.
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