Meanwhile, in his basement and in the former two-car garage behind his home, Sherman, .. is beginning to experiment with the circuitry of the Furby, the must-have electronic toy of 1998 that spoke its own breed of language while occasionally mimicking its human owner. Sherman encountered Furby when his now-17-year-old twin sons owned them (another studio in the Sherman home belongs to Nancy Sedar Sherman, an embroidery artist). "They are the most sophisticated toy I've ever seen," says Sherman, who admits that when the Furby was still a mere toy, and not components of his work, his sons "were driving me nuts" playing with them. Now, Sherman buys them on the Internet, incorporating the dome-shaped bodies and electronic guts into kinetic pieces such as Furby's Frenetic Workout. There, a silver-skinned Furby squawks as it sits on the handlebars of an exercise bike Sherman has given the profile of a motorcycle by adding a rear fender made of stainless steel slide joints fastened by a bronze clip. The contraption will skitter across a parking lot, or, if tied down in a home workshop, rattle wildly up and down, an exercise machine that runs the program as the hypothetical rider hangs on for dear life.

Frenetic Workout made its debut at the + Gallery show's opening, and has inspired Sherman to continue his exploration of what the once-popular plaything can do in a series called "Toys at Play."

- Mary Chandler, Rocky Mountian New Art Review