Animated Art Show 'Mercury Retrograde' Coming to Lafayette

"Mercury retrograde" is the term for an astronomical optical illusion. A few times a year, the planet appears to be moving backwards in its orbit when seen from earth.

It's also the title of a new exhibit at Lafayette College's Williams Center Gallery that features animated videos by a number of international artists.

Mercury Retrograde: Animated Realities opens Jan. 28 and runs through March 9.

The exhibit is free, open to the public, and features works by Brian Alfred, Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Aline Bouvy & John Gillis, eteam, Cliff Evans, Jan Nalevka, and Noah Spidermen and Scott Gelber.

"The works grapple with complex topics surrounding the culture of spectacle, excesses of consumption, economic and power relations in the era of globalization and interconnectedness, and reveal the artists' simultaneous fascination with and critique of our culture, society, and politics," the college said in a news release.

Exhibit curators William Heath and Zeljka Himbele will give a talk about the works at 4:10 p.m. on Feb. 6. That date is significant: it's the next time Mercury will go retrograde.