intent
courtesy of beauarts ltd
Did you ever ask an object what it wanted to be?
Does a piece of scrap metal perceive itself as a cat, a bull, or a bird about to fly?
Do the butterflies winging across the skies by the hundreds realize that, in stillness and assembled just so, they become the image of a magnificent stained-glass window?
Is plastic aware of it’s own plasticity?
We may never answer these questions, but we can be certain that, when seen by an artist, materials have potential that goes beyond the form and function which they were born with. Artists working in 3 dimensions often see something new and different in something that already exists, or create new form by assembling groups of objects in new ways.
Benedict Tatti (American)
James Graham & Sons, Inc.
Examples abound in museums and galleries. Benedict Tatti, whose work is on view at James Graham & Sons through April 27th, assembled fragments of steel and coaxed them into becoming the images of animals. Damien Hirst, in his latest exhibition, presented large-scale assemblages of (alas, non-living) butterflies that rival or surpass in beauty the windows of the grandest cathedrals, as well as the works of L.C.Tiffany - if you don’t believe us, visit the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel to see one up close. And sculptor Lee Bontecou, whose solo exhibition at Knoedler & Co. closes April 28th, used simple plastic, formed by vacuum, to express her vision of fanciful yet credibly life-like creatures, with details that cause Mother Nature herself to rub her eyes in wonderment.
NAM JUNE PAIK In-Flux House, 1993.
as seen at JAMES COHAN GALLERY
Sometimes the choice of objects is loaded with meaning - the functioning television equipment and furniture assembled by Nam June Paik into large-scale installations which also display his video work, and the basketball paraphernalia often chosen by David Hammons, carry an consciousness of media, history and culture that influences the appreciation of the work. In the works of Joseph Cornell, now on view at Pavel Zoubok it is the very simplicity, familiarity and tactile quality of the objects he incorporated that stir the viewer’s nostalgia and desire. Sherrie Levine, whose solo exhibition is the first in Paula Cooper’s New space on 23rd Street, literally and figuratively re-casts and re-frames the found in a way that only emphasizes its “foundness.” In the case of the works of Dove Bradshaw on view at Bjorn Ressle Fine Art, the found ingredient is a process - the radiant visual complexity of her work is the result of the her orchestration of the meeting of corrosive agents and mineral substrates.
Sherrie Levine at Paula Cooper - 23rd street and 10th
courtesy of Paula Cooper Gallery
The “combines” of Robert Rauschenberg generally feature juxtapositions that defy logical interpretation, but these enigmas impact the viewer as the most evocative and intriguing work of this kind to date. And, lest we think of this dance of sculptor and medium as a 20th Century phenomenon breaking conventions, we must recall the “unfinished slaves” of Michelangelo - the figures that appear to be struggling to emerge from chunks of marble that the master left apparently partly un-worked, calling attention to the concept that the subject resides within the stone waiting to be discovered by the artist - Michaelangelo decribed his process as "liberating the figure imprisoned in the marble."
Having viewed these works, the one can hardly resist the temptation to observe an object, or even a creature, and momentarily re-imagine it in a way that transcends form and function as we usually understand them. And, in that moment, unlocking the visual treasure-chest buried beneath the perception of the commonplace, we all become artists.
But are objects endowed by nature with hidden properties to be discovered, do they have an intention within their own existence, or is their transformation a mere accident of having been see by a given artist at a particular time? That question, ladies and gentlemen, we will leave you to deliberate.
Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel
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