A vitrine is always a little not there. It’s either just another section of the wall or a reflective surface, which occludes everything inside. In either case, what’s inside the vitrine is immaterial, the glass is all that matters: a vitrine isn’t named after its negative space.

“Dazzle patterns,” in biology or military applications, aren’t really camouflage.  They’re conspicuous visual illusions meant to disrupt the predator’s sense of direction, extension, and depth.

Alex Snukal’s “You Can’t Have Fucking Nothing Isn’t” takes the AGYU vitrines at face value. Playing with ideas of surface, camouflage, and disappearance, the work attempts to be both visible and invisible. Applying a kinetic dazzle pattern to the surface of the vitrines, Snukal’s work evades detection by passers-by while trying to blind them to the exact dimensions of the work.

Alex Snukal is an artist, writer, and musician who lives and works in Toronto. He performs regularly as Animal Monster and as part of New Feelings. Snukal’s writing has appeared in C Magazine, Locus Suspectus, and Broken Pencil. Recent projects include No Images (2010), Consensus Bus (2010), and Magic Acid Video Clash Crash Feet (2012). He is currently a resident at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts’ Art and Law Residency in New York City, which culminates in an exhibition at the Dumbo Arts Centre in October. Snukal is the Programming Coordinator at InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre in Toronto.