Driving by Arlington Arts Center, it’s easy to think they have succumbed to a unique prank. Approximately 100 poles are scattered across the front lawn, stuck in the ground like plastic forks, a toy rests atop each pole. This piece, Cory Wagner’s Give/Take, engages the audience with items for trade. Some visitors have simply taken. Others have given a plastic spoon, a watered down ounce of milkshake, two weather-soiled cigarettes, two dandelions, two cents, and handfuls of crayons in return. From the plaque marking the object, this seems to be precisely what Wagner has in mind.

This is the kind of work that inspires the corners of your mouth to turn up, just a little, if it doesn’t inspire your brow to furrow. Unfortunately, much of the work in the Spring Solos inside doesn’t fair much better. Of the eight artists inside, there are just a handful attractive highlights. Most of the artists are still grappling with their media, with only a couple at that precious moment where it looks like their ideas can take flight – within a year or two the work might actually become something dropping your jaw in awe rather than simply letting it go slack with indifference.

Some highlight’s include Keith Sharp’s photographs in the Tiffany Gallery, which are a labored act of analog photoshopping: pasting printed photographs onto foam boards and placing them in interior sets. Most of them fool the eye for a bit, until the edges of the foam board can be discerned.