JAMES TURRELL CONSTRUCTED his installation Magnatron by building a closet-sized chamber behind one of the walls of Haines Gallery's back room. At the base of the chamber and out of view, he placed a television set, whose flickering light rises up and emanates from the only opening onto the room: an aperture cut in the shape of a television screen. In the center of the gallery, a comfortable chair and side table sit facing the glowing aperture. The installation reconstructs the experience of watching television, familiar to living rooms throughout the world. Cool blue and white light fills the gallery, sputtering through subtle, rapid-fire changes and creating an intoxicatingly mellow mood. Relaxing into the installation's sole leather chair, one could watch the empty opening and its radiant light for hours. In accompanying text, Turrell describes wanting to create an atmosphere which can be "consciously plumbed with seeing, like the wordless thought that comes from fire." But his installation is not only mesmerizing. By presenting the TV only indirectly, Turrell has distilled the content from the viewing experience, calling attention instead to the context it creates, its unanticipated ambient effects, and its form. Sitting in the chair, one finds oneself in an isolated, autistic shell. The empty walls of the gallery and the closet built into the wall resemble the empty frame of mind instilled by the television. The viewer withdraws into protected isolation and passively submits to a nameless authority – invoked perhaps by the overinflated title of the piece, Magnatron. Devoid of any determinate content, the installation presents this authoritarianism as intrinsic to the structure of television viewing – challenging mass media institutions and video artists alike. In the same building, at Catharine Clark Gallery, 'Scott Robert's video installation Lucky in his show Indexcision raises related concerns and provides an interesting complement to Turrell's work. The installation reconstructs a Lucky Charms cereal box by projecting onto a blank box a video in which the artist, dressed as a leprechaun, comes to life and eats the cereal. Beyond its immediate humor, the piece enacts the fetishism of capitalist society, in which products – with their magically delicious auras – seem more alive than people, who have been reduced to passive consumers. Tues.-Fri., 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat., 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Haines Gallery, 49 Geary, Ste. 540, SF. (415) 397-8114. Indexcision runs through July 16. Tues.-Fri., 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat., 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Catharine Clark Gallery, 49 Geary, second fl., SF. (415) 399-1439. (Clark Buckner)