E-Mail This Article to a Friend Art on its own Mutable art at the Mills, ‘Mad Dash’ in JP, mermaids at Montserrat BY RANDI HOPKINS

Push the cartoonish button on the wall at the Boston Center for the Arts’ Mills Gallery and a swirl of music starts up, evoking the cocktail hour in a big-band-era hotel ballroom. A small painted box mounted on aluminum supports opens to reveal a martini glass, complete with olive, creating a mini party within an otherwise rather formal sculpture. The good-natured work is Mary Sherman’s At Heart, Spike Jones (Jones was a 1940s-era bandleader known for using screams, gunshots, slams, thuds, and gargling in his music, a wacky bit of which Sherman has included in her selection), and it sets the tone for "What If?", an exhibition she has curated at the Mills Gallery that will be up through November 30. "What If?" brings together six artists who embrace the idea that the art they create, once out of their hands, takes on a life of its own, drawing from the physical, historical, and cultural context of its new digs (whether a private home or a gallery or museum).

The playful exhibition challenges some dearly held assumptions about the role of original intention in art — if, for example, we prefer the piece upside down, is it still the piece the artist created? Peter Lindenmuth addresses this issue in his group of charming sculptures with apt titles like Nicest As a Settee, But Can Be a Table, Too and Romantic Pair of Chairs That Can Be Positioned in a Variety of Ways for an Intimate Touchy-Feely Cocktail Hour. James Tellin defies the expectation that a sculpture’s only future will be to stand on a pedestal, with occasional dustings; his colorful works are set on ball bearings, ready to go wherever you do. Kelly Kaczynski, Urban Ramstedt, and Larimer Richards also contribute open-ended work without ego problems. To engage further the questions "What If" poses, the Mills is hosting a panel discussion, "The Fiction of the Discrete Object," next Thursday at 6 p.m.; it will be moderated by artist/writer/generally opinionated character Charles Giuliano, with panelists Moni Oolyonghai, Denise McColgen, Hafthor Yngvason, and Sherman.

If you’d like to have the experience of recontextualizing a great piece of art in your own home (by which I mean, buying it!), don’t miss the X Games of local art collecting: the annual Mad Dash "150 x 150" at the Gallery @ Green Street, whose 2003 edition takes place this Saturday at noon. One hundred and fifty generous artists, from Steve Aishman to Brian Zink, have offered one work each to be sold for $150 to support this non-profit gallery. It’s first-come, first-served, so wear your elbow pads — past editions have been very popular, and quite competitive!

Carol Keller makes exquisite sculpture, drawings, and collage, and an exhibition celebrating her cross-disciplinary work has been organized at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly. "The Drawn Idea: Sculpture and Drawings by Carol Keller" is on view through December 18, and next Friday at 11:30 a.m. the articulate artist will talk about her work, which is both formal and emotional, with representational as well as abstract elements. The draftsman’s love of immediate gesture combines with the sculptor’s feel for constructed forms in works like Mermaid IV, in which the rounded form of the hybrid creature is encased inside a box, pitting form against line, life against geometry. Go hear what Keller has to say about her complex, beautiful work.

"What If?" is at the BCA’s Mills Gallery, 539 Tremont Street in the South End, through November 30. The free panel discussion "The Fiction of the Discrete Object" will take place next Thursday, November 6, from 6 to 8 p.m.; call (617) 426-8835. "150 x 150" is at the Gallery @ Green Street, 141 Green Street in Jamaica Plain, beginning at noon on November 1, with work up to preview through October 31; call (617) 522-0000. "The Drawn Idea: Sculpture and Drawings by Carol Keller" is at Montserrat College of Art, 23 Essex Street in Beverly, through December 18, with an artist’s talk next Friday, November 7, at 11:30 am.; call (978) 921-4242 extension 1319.