Where time and space may merge
(DON’T) LOOK BACK A Group Sculpture Exhibition At MOMO Gallery Until April 22 DANNY SHORKEND Reviews
A CELEBRATION of the magic of sculptural form within a gallery context, that is form as sculpture, results in a captivating first room and bodes well as you journey further into the gallery space.
You are met with a variety of perceptual and conceptual bits of information, through the very presence of these objects qua sculpture that challenge and proceed (as if there is a logic) to evoke a reaction.
But what of inanimate matter with the markings of the artist – will it speak or move? Evidently not.
Yet like the ability silicon has to hold or conduct information, so the (sculptural) objects create a certain energy.
Just as in physics this energy consists of atoms, subatomic particles and various forces, so the material object formed and/or considered, carries some message.
Boshoff’s work in Belfast black granite entitled flag stone is peculiar, yet powerful. You sense that this “flag stone” is a remnant of a bygone era, not merely dense or condensed energy, for etched into it are the Latin words: “Gutta Cavat ladidem non VI sed saepe cadendo” which translated reads as “a drop of water hollows the stone, not by force, but by continuously dripping”. It’s a saying attributed to Ovid.
Water can soften and penetrate stone, seemingly in defiance of logic .
Before that work registered, Kim Lieberman’s installation sculpture of blood red cable lace and other mediums suggested a web-like effect which is created within and around the gallery space, even enveloping the viewer .
It seems to be a weaving of order and pattern that evolve and create certain structures; threads that coalesce, like capillaries.
The red lattice work implies a sort of gravity field, the fabric of space-time as it were, a vortex of sorts so that perhaps the artist intended the viewer to sense an energy not only as sculptural object but as a “representation” of some force, even that which pervades space-time itself.
Ledelle Moe’s Lament is robust such that the central figures are surrounded by shattered fragments (sparks?). Their mammoth form, the face appearing to be subject to pain, still seems to indicate a struggle with mortality as one’s body simply wastes away.
This reading is based on the fact that since the figures and stone fragments seem to be composed of the same “stuff”, that there is a continuity whether as a human form or a stone. This might quell your fear of death and thence one hopes the figures will find joy and embrace life.
Stephan Erasmus’s simple, what I call linear construct in wood, perhaps suggests a way to activate the state of mind hoped for above: one cannot determine if cosmos or order has been reachedor whether it is through intention and design or chance and caprice.
Yet this simple “sculpture” is an algorithm of the potential of the struggle concerning such questions that may lead to a sense that perhaps there is beauty that abounds.
I managed to get a glimpse or preview of the work of highly acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist Coby Kennedy entitled Skin of the thug showing until May 27.
It appears highly innovative and visually satisfying.
And beyond sculpture to the sculptural-paintings of Kennedy, there was a video piece by Kendall Buster which was fascinating as it sped through architectural images and as the forms seem to amalgamate, so weird designs and patterns emerge.
The geometries of the architectural forms give way to an organic, endless flow.
Is there then a centre, a point of architectural stability?
Yet that may not even be desirable, as one knows the dangers of a centre: one aesthetic, one style, one artistic form and so on.
Rather, and in relation to the sculptural exhibition, you may surmise that just as there is no so-called international style, one monolithic aesthetic apparently in architecture, so there is not in the sculptural tradition. Don’t look back, the title of the sculpture show, makes reference to Bob Dylan’s words: “shake the dust off your feet, don’t look back. Nothing now can hold you down, nothing that you lack” and, in keeping with that, such encouragement may not be far off the mark.