By: Diane Vivona
“Espèces D’Espaces” (Species of Spaces) is a group exhibition presented by Yvon Lambert New York (www.yvon-lambert.com) from March 28 – May 16. The show presents the work of 23 contemporary conceptual artists, ranging from emerging to established. The focusing curatorial concept is inspired by French author Georges Perec’s 1974 book (for which the exhibition is named), which suggests that the spatial and textual constraints in which we live give rise to particular products and outcomes. Of the list of artists included in this show, some appear to easily match this theme. For others, an extra moment of consideration brings, perhaps, an oblique connection to light.
Zilvinas Kempinas, Double O, (2008) installation shot, courtesy of Yvon Lambert
Paris, New York.
Zilvinas Kempinas’ work Double O (2008) could be the result of the artist spending a hot afternoon in a very crowded apartment. It is the exhibition’s showstopper. The piece consists of two industrial fans facing each other at a distance of about four feet and two large rings of magnetic tape. The air current created by the fans holds the two loops of tape aloft in perpetual shifts of interactive movement. The circles dip and dive, left to right, up and down in unpredictable ways. They are perpetually animated by the fans’ functional output. The effect is mesmerizing. The floating ribbons are at once astoundingly complex and mind-numbingly simple. Conceptually the work could be linked to Robert Barry’s seminal Inert Gas Series (1969). But, unlike Barry’s work where there was nothing to actually see, this work has a profound visual impact. Kempina’s idea allows the visual product to actually matter and this is, perhaps, one tenet of the second-generation conceptualists.
The presentation of several generations supports a sense of artistic lineage. “Espèces D’Espaces” includes a work by Barry, Steel Disc Suspended 1/8 Inch Above Floor (#3) (1967), whose title describes its form, as well as a work by his peer Lawrence Weiner, whose titles usually are the form. Weiner’s work selected for this show, however, is a sound piece, Something to put something on, a structure of Lawrence Weiner (1998). In this work, Barbara Clauson and Weiner recite questions and answers that ponder possibilities on the appearance and function of a table. Their brief conversation investigates this object as both physical and social structure and aligns with philosopher Bertrand Russell’s 1912 essay “Appearance and Reality” from The Problems of Philosophy. Listening to the unabating loop of Weiner’s discussion may have been revelatory in ’67, but by today’s standards, the effect is grating. While both Kempina’s floating O-loops and Weiner’s dialogue seem to go round and round in unresolved perpetuity, contemporary tolerance is more amenable to the visual algorithm than the philosophical.
Jenny Holzer, Striped Cross (2008), ©Jenny Holzer, courtesy of the artist and Yvon Lambert
Paris, New York.
Jenny Holzer’s Striped Cross (2008) is a new work using techniques Holzer established in the late 70s and early 80s. Her tickertape texts have diminished impact as reflections on art as commodity and this work concentrates, appealingly on semantics. Mounted in a corner of the front gallery are four diagonal LED signs that appear to move into and out of the walls in a circling pathway. Texts travel along the sign and then repeat in variations – changing colors, direction, format and form. The shifting presentation of the words suggests that the meaning of the words may be similarly malleable. Holzer’s work seems particularly affined to Perec’s, as her games with spatial presentation underpin meaning and concept. The corner setting of Striped Cross, for example, serves as a literal metaphor, mirroring the reader who is “cornered” into an act of translation.
Liam Gillick’s Reduced Rejection (2008) also uses literal metaphor, but in a way that highlights a broken functionality. The viewer can’t translate the work because there is nothing actually behind the object to which it refers. His sculptural forms often have this kind of puzzle. They appear to embody an industrial purpose, but none exists. Reduced Rejection is a rectangular slatted form cast in white aluminum that looks like some kind of frame for a lighting fixture. The object’s design borrows from commercial office construction, and uses practical materials and industrial manufacturing techniques. The “use value” of the object is opaque, and the work’s title may or may not support associative ideas related to the form. This perfectly planned obsolescence is deliberate, as Gillick’s work acts as a kind of social critique of the forms we develop to support socialized situations and endeavors.
This exhibition brings together a rich group of objects worthy of a special trip to the far end of
“Espèces D’Espaces” at Yvon Lambert New York runs through May 16th
Yvon Lambert
550 West 21st Street
Take the A, C or E trains to 23nd Street and/or take the M23 bus to 23rd Street and 11th Avenue
Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 10 am - 6 pm
Gallery Website: www.yvon-lambert.com
Discussing conceptual work, and particularly describing it in an enticing way, can be a challenge at best. Diane Vivona makes it look easy. This is probably one of those shows that I would have passed up, assuming it was trying too hard to achieve a curatorial concept at the expense of the work, however, now I will make sure to take a trip.
Posted by: SMC | May 02, 2009 at 06:13 PM
The descriptions of these works make them seem very engaging. Am especially interested in the Weiner/Clauson piece.
Posted by: LEP | May 05, 2009 at 09:49 AM
A thoughtful article on difficult a subject.
Posted by: jblock | May 05, 2009 at 12:51 PM