**HVW8 Gallery stands as a tiny hole-in-the-wall on Melrose. Painted pure white (save for the black sans serif lettering that spans across a window), you might miss it if you blink. “i don’t think i can have the time of my life,” the lettering reads. This, perhaps, best indicates what Kilo Kish’s Real ― Safe installation is about, kind of like the feeling you get when you’re at a party but you’re not really at a party (you know what I mean?!). Through the performance based art show, Kish juxtaposes the reality we create through our online personas to the reality we actually live in and oftentimes neglect. The interactive performance draws you in, forcing you to testify to your own limits of personal space, whether that be in the real world or url.**
**In the next room, film works collaborated on by Sam Massey and Emmanuel Olunkwa are on view and they help add to that heightened feeling of hyper self-awareness you inevitably develop once you cross the threshold separating sidewalk from gallery. In a sense, you feel as though you’ve entered a different dimension, a kind of Twilight Zone portal perched on the corner of Melrose and Spaulding.**
**I’ll spare you all the spoiler details - partly because I couldn’t begin to explain the gravity of it just through some kind of flowery, elevated language, but also because telling you what will happen will take away completely from the experience. Just trust in Kish, who has been making experimental music projects since 2012 and who we’ve also [profiled](http://www.flaunt.com/content/music/mutant-takeover-part-2?rq=kilo%20kish) before, because she knows exactly what she’s doing.**
**From July 7 - August 13 at the HVW8 Gallery, let Kish and the performers welcome you to the Real ― Safe Zone.**
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Written by: Chelsey Sanchez
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