"Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty" exhibition

If your kid is burned out on crayons, take him to the New Museum’s "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty" exhibition to see art that will blow his mind. The show is intended to have a "hallucinatory effect," says Massimiliano Gioni, the institution’s director of special exhibitions. "You probably will not believe what you see."

Indeed, the highlight—an installation of 53 reflective chrome boxes placed on a grid inspired by Manhattan’s streets—is mind-bending. Silk-screened onto the sides of the cubes are images of banal but disproportional objects: a tiny model of the Empire State Building, a gigantic doughnut. As children amble through, their image will also be reflected in the boxes, and layered on top of other images. "It’s a collage that happens in front of your eyes," says Gioni.

On the fourth floor, tykes can hang out under 16-foot aluminum monoliths; one flight down, they can gawk at a piano that looks like it has melted, and get "licked" by a wax tongue (called Noisette) that darts out from a hole. The piece "is very indicative of Fischer’s work," says Gioni. "It’s playful and irreverent."—Julia Israel

"Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty" is on view through Feb 7, 2010.

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