IN THE GLOAMING

Adam Putnam's "Magic Lantern" series (on view last month at Artists Space in New York) reminds me of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1851 tale "The Familiar," in which a man is tormented by a delphic paranormal character that he alone can sense in seemingly empty streets, empty rooms, and dark corners. Le Fanu uses merely a shadow of a presence, lightly drawn and nebulous, to haunt the main character into cataleptic death. With his "Magic Lanterns" Putnam reverses Le Fanu's sleight of hand: The looming presence takes the form of an empty room. In his odd, architecturally detailed projections, spaces quiver unnervingly with the movement of the silent candlelight that fuels them.

- Trisha Donnelly, from her Top Ten list, Artforum March 2004