Vinyl siding is in the gallery, but is it art? By ROBERT LOERZEL Contributor (Sun-Times News Group) Following last month's showing of paintings inspired by the Old Masters, Harper College's October exhibit is more likely to prompt that oft-asked question: What is art? "This is a very contemporary, conceptual show," says Perry Pollack, assistant professor of art. "It's art made in our own time. It's the type of art that poses questions about the nature of art." Showcasing recent work by Chicago artist JB Daniel, the exhibit includes a piece that he created specifically for the gallery -- two squares of light-brown vinyl siding, the same sort of siding you might put on a garage. Daniel bought the materials at a Menards store. "Put vinyl siding on a garage, and it's a garage. Put vinyl siding on a gallery wall and it's..." Daniel lets the sentence hang in the air, unfinished. Daniel, an Oak Park native who now splits his time between a home and studio in the Pullman area and a home in Rogers Park, notes that the siding is installed on the gallery wall in the way that siding is normally installed, making it part of the gallery's actual structure rather than just an adornment. The show also includes several recent artworks reflecting Daniel's fascination with language. In the "bang series," he purchased strips of explosive caps for toy pistols, then pressed letters over some of the caps. "For the second piece, I realized I needed to put in earplugs," he says. The words juxtapose seemingly unrelated vocabulary lists. For example, one of these artworks is called "Ideologies, Cat Names, Types of Pasta." Another is "Dead Cowboys, Verbs of Being, Microwave Directions for Chicken Pot Pie." Daniel encourages gallery visitors to touch another artwork in the show, "Is, And, The" -- a net hanging from the ceiling with small lead pieces. Larger lead weights hang around the corners of the net; lowering or raising these weights changes the shape of the net. Just like language, "it's infinitely reconfigurable within its confines," Daniel says. JB DANIEL: RECENT WORK Through Nov. 2. Open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. New Student Services and Art Center, Room C200, Harper College, Algonquin and Roselle roads, Palatine.

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