“Daily Routines,” comprising half a dozen pseudo-utilitarian furnishings and appliances, is the first US solo exhibition for the Viennese collective breadedEscalope (Sacha Mikel, Martin Schnabl, and Michael Tatschi). Founded in 2007, the group has previously shown at galleries and design showcases in Europe and China, wryly probing the spiritual frustrations that underlie modern domestic activities and consumerism. Zen-Rug (2017), a wall-hung, framed piece of velour whose knap can be raked and swirled in patterns like the surface of a Japanese sand garden, comes with a vacuum cleaner bearing an absurd handblown-glass nozzle made expressly for that purpose. Your Clock (2007) does not show the steady passing of time, but instead remains fixed until its chain is pulled—making it race ahead to the present moment and stop again. Such tongue-in-cheek philosophical toys have their social correlative in Bar Non-Lieu (2015), an intimate cocktail venue (two stools, a whiskey bottle, glasses, a candle) that encloses its patrons, from the shoulders up, in a mirror-lined wooden box. Users thus bask in a surprising persuasive sense of privacy, while viewers outside can monitor every telltale shift in their body language. —Richard Vine
Pictured: breadedEscalope: Your Clock, 2007, flipclock, microcontroller, 3D printed gearbox, and cord, 13 by 9 inches. Courtesy Elga Wimmer PCC, New York.