Conrad Freiburg

Several Americans say they’re dissatisfied with their ruler, George, for—among other things—transporting people “beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses” and depriving them “of the benefits of Trial by Jury.” They’re not talking about Guantánamo: These phrases come from the Declaration of Independence, and they appear on 13 of the kinetic sculptures Chicago-based artist Freiburg created for this exhibition.

Instead of keeping a safe, gallery-approved distance from Freiburg’s Rube Goldberg–ian contraptions—almost all of which are housed in wooden vitrines—you must set the sculptures in motion. Each piece offers a different challenge, requiring you to manipulate magnets, pulleys and levers to strike a concrete block with a hammer or shoot steel balls at a target. The transgressive thrill produced by slamming around Freiburg’s handiwork is half the fun of “A Great Daydream,” but the artist isn’t just indulging our destructive impulses: The sculptures illustrate the 1776 revolutionaries’ statements. The piece that refers to George III’s denying jury trials detours steel balls into a hole, so that they bypass 12 other balls arranged on a wooden platform. A statement about the king dissolving legislatures adorns a cabinet in which crown-shaped hammers split apart shelves full of balls. These obvious metaphors are surprisingly brilliant demonstrations of how power corrupts. By the time you reach Freiburg’s 14th sculpture—which lets you choose whether to crush a table full of delicate wooden constructions—you’ll be tempted to do the wrong thing. But if democratic ideals don’t stay your hand, the gallery staff probably will.

Click here to check out more art reviews.