Gallery opening of the week

It's a timely moment to reflect on the birth of the gay rights movement given the controversy over same-sex marriage in the District and beyond, and artist Geoffrey Aldridge is doing just that with his exhibition at Transformer, "Geoffrey Aldridge: Hole in the Wall." The title comes from the Stonewall riots, often credited with jump-starting the gay rights movement in 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular Greenwich Village gay bar, and the patrons responded by hurling bricks, pennies and even a parking meter at the police.

Although the riots occurred long before Aldridge was born, the D.C. artist uses the event as a starting point to explore issues of sexuality and identity through video and installations. A lot of the work revolves around tweaking familiar, relatable objects, as in a video that shows the difficulty of wearing a boa that consists of fur-covered cinder blocks linked by chains.

Another recognizable image shows up in "Pendulum." What appears to be the yellow brick road is actually made of glittery yellow faux bricks that creep up the gallery wall to show parallels to the journey of gay rights activists over the past 40 years.

Where did these disparate ideascome from? Gallery-goers can ask Aldridge on Saturday at 4 p.m. during an artist discussion that precedes the 5 p.m. opening reception.

-- Stephanie Merry