MIAMIART: Critical dialogue on Miami art.

Francis Trombly’s “Thinking of Things” is presently at David Castillo Gallery from May 10th through June 7th, 2008. This is her 5th solo exhibition continuing in the vein of hand woven fabrications of common objects. In this exhibition the artist has created objects such as garbage bags, tarps, boxes, crinkled papers and a mop.

In a recent book review on artnet.com, writer Judith Collins clarifies her stance in stating that, “Duchamp won, Picasso lost.” Her argument is that while Picasso clung to painting, drawing, photography, and printmaking, Duchamp’s legacy was the “democracy of all objects” as means to make art. If anything Francis Trombly’s art is a testament to Collin’s statement.

Trombly’s art echoes the likes of Jorge Pardo’s in that it questions: when does a “functional object” become art?; what does it means for an artist to create a “functional” object”? Unlike Merrit Oppenheim’s fur bowel, most of the art in this exhibition has a functional doppelganger depending on the context you put it in. For instance, merely apply soap water to the “mop”, rub it over a dirty floor and it will function exactly like any other mop.

So to answer the first question, Trombly obviously feels that a functional object becomes art when an artist makes it. The second question is a little more complicated. All of the pieces in this show are woven, which traditionally is a feminine medium. Similar to feminist pieces like Su Richardson’s “Burnt Breakfast” or Magdalena Abakanowicz’s “Black Garmet” the act of knitting sets the premise for the critique of feminine stereotypes.

So then, lets rephrase the question: what does it mean for a female sculptor to weave a painter’s tarp (paint being a historically male medium)? Go see Trombly’s exhibition and answer her art questions for yourself.

I would highly recommend this exhibition purely for it’s eclectic nature in Miami’s overly decorative art scene. Some will no doubt be shocked when seeing this art in a gallery space. The personal appeal of this type work will depend on your preference for cerebral over visual (for lack of a better word) diversions. Personally, I prefer art that simultaneously embraces both persuasions.

Lee Materazzi’s, “In Between Places” is at Spinello Gallery from May 10^th through June 7^th, 2008.  The exhibition consists of two groups of beautifully executed photographs. This is Materazzi’s second solo show in Miami.

Lee Materazzi is most likely the first female photographer in Miami of exceptional notice since Naomi Fisher.  The originality and oddness of this work easily places her amongst some of the older and more established voices in our art scene. 

There appears to be two groupings of photographs: Nudes with clothes on their heads, and people with their heads stuck in orifices.  Initially the intricacy and richness of the clothed head series calls to mind Van Eyck’s iconic, “Man In Turban”.   However, instead of bejeweling or adding status too the represented individual, the headpieces in Materazzi’s photographs act to neutralize and declassify the person. Similarly, nudity in this work is also negated and leveled out by the act of “masking”.  Sexual identity becomes as objectified, though not necessarily in an erotic manner, as the domestic environment they inhabit.  If you could buy nude people at Ikea or in one of their catalogues this is what they’d look and feel like.

The second grouping of photographs is similarly disarming and perhaps more thought provoking.  Several people would appear to have lost their heads into household objects or the earth they walk on, instantly immobilizing them in their environments.  There is no sign of resistance and their body language suggests an air of defeatism or fatalism.  These photos blur the boundary between subject and environment reducing the coincidence of either into strange arrangements of motionless abstract formality. 

What is presently missing from this young artist’s repertoire, and will hopefully appear in future work, is a sense of danger or criticality with which to converse with.  The loss of identity is certainly intriguing, yet at this point there is little, aside from banality, challenging what it means or could mean to be faceless or unrepresented in the world.  It should be interesting to see what else this artist ends up doing with the issues and contexts surrounding identity.

I highly recommend viewing Lee Matazzari’s exhibition, especially to young artists who apparently need to see that new work in Miami can be free from art school formalism and sentimental clichés. 

Meta is a prefix used when a category is self-referential. In the case of art, it would be “metaart”. Metaart is traditionally critical of art’s social, monetary or political value and while it is nothing new and can be done quite provocatively, it should be noted that it is different from art inspired by another artist or source. Usually we wouldn’t consider writing a double review, but two of Miami’s artists, Gavin Perry and Cristina Lei Rodriguez, have offered up confused exercises in metaart. So it seems appropriate.

Gavin Perry’s Deadcentury is at Fredrick Snitzer Gallery from April 12th through Mat 5th, 2008. The show consists of paintings, sculptures and works on paper. This is Perry’s second solo show at Fredrick Snitzer Gallery and he is also represented by Galerie Baumet- Sultana in Paris.

Gavin Perry is best known around town for this brightly colored vinyl tape in resin paintings inspired by car culture. If you are unfamiliar, you might recognize his painting from the cover of the Miami Contemporary Artists catalogue. Perry’s recent exhibition marks a departure from the use of color, with exceptions, to paintings comprised of different shades of black over lace. Also, in what would appear to be a trend at Snitzer Gallery there is a series of drawings and several small sculptures available.

Dark or “black” paintings have their origins in Western Art from artists like Carravaggio, La Tour and Ribera. One hundred and fifty years after Francisco de Goya painted his dark paintings inspired by mythological and witchcraft, artists like Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt and Frank Stella used black as a theoretically and spiritually groundbreaking action. In these insipid times “black painting” commands a high market value because of it’s supposed spiritual or existential reverence. While artists like Allen Mccollum and Kara Walker still add diffused meaning to the color black, “black painting” as it were, is rife for critique because of it’s compromised function in contemporary art. In floods metaart like Anselm Reyle and Damien Hirst’s fly paintings.

There is no question that Gavin Perry’s paintings are beautiful and produced with incredible craftsmanship. Similar to Francis Bacon’s practice of putting glass over all his paintings, Perry’s reflective resin surfaces make it almost impossible to view them without seeing one’s reflection in them, forcing the viewer to enter the painting’s physical space. Unfortunately, the larger black paintings are almost exactly what you would expect, which is why the smaller more experimental colored paintings in the show feel vastly more engaging and fresh.

The press release states that the paintings are “responses to the formalist vocabulary of Clement Greenberg that defined the art of the 1950’s and 1960’s”. Exactly what type of response would be the question. Perry’s paintings are as decorative now as the works from the Greenbergian era have become over time. With or without color, nothing about the language he uses is challenging or abrasive to common knowledge of traditional geometric abstraction or even Perry’s previous work. Removing color from his signature style simply places Perry into the problematic objectification of painters he is attempting to respond to. Was that the intent?

The works on paper shed a more critical light on the golden era of geometric abstraction. Frank Stella, Daniel Buren and even Perry’s own compositions are reproduced in aluminum leaf and bright red which can be read as representing their commoditization. This kind of statement is too easy to make and Perry’s original compositions are more interesting than his metaart experimentations with others.

Curiously enough, this is the second exhibition at Snitzer Gallery in recent memory to feature a painter exhibiting metaart about “black painting”, see Jacin Giordano’s People Places and Things exhibition last summer. Nothing about this exhibition casts doubt on the fact that Perry is a serious and dedicated artist, but I think in light of other contemporary artists claiming new territory in geometric abstraction like Garth Weiser, Mark Grotjahn or Tomma Abts, it is a little disappointing to see a preference for dead end metaart about it.

Cristina Lei Rodriguez’ New Works is at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami from April 12- May 24, 2008. This is her third show with the gallery, one of those taking place in the Paris gallery. The exhibition is made up of what you would expect, mostly sculpture with some of the work displayed on the wall.

This show marks a surprising shift in Rodriguez’ direction. From colorful and explosive objects comprised of vegetation entangled with man made materials like resin, glitter, paint, plastic and found objects to the disappearance of those apposing forces leaving only the synthetic. You can see a shift in the intensity of the works as well, from complicated labor intensive to subdued, almost phlegmatic pieces.

Rodriguez’s new works seem to try to move beyond the baroque, overtly ornamental which she is known for. As stated in the press release “The works on view bear a noticeable relationship to the found objects, minimalist works and junk sculptures of the 1960s, particularly those by Donald Judd and John Chamberlain.” I’m not entirely convinced of the combined relationship of those two artists in one sentence let alone referenced in one show.

As with Gavin Perry, there is no question on the visual impact of Rodriguez’ work, but I must question the validity of her new references to minimalism. The center piece work is a large sculpture dangling from the ceiling. The piece resembles a chaotic mobile and is one of the first things one encounters as you enter the space. It continues Rodriguez’ style of working, as do several other works that demonstrate a relationship to artists like Isa Genzken and David Altmejd. The works in questions here hastily and unfoundedly try to align themselves with Judd and Chamberlain. Chamberlain’s formalism seems more legitimate as a lineage for Lei, with his mangled car parts and meaningful arrangements. More problematic are the minimalist art references. One of the works directly references Andre’s metal plate works by placing a row of rectangular plexi pieces (installed crookedly! Come on!) on the floor from the back of the gallery to the entrance. The plexi is covered in clear resin with several jewels adorning their facade. The effect comes across as pure verisimilitude. This kind of pointless appropriation lacks any challenge or contrast to the traditional minimalist language.

There are also works combining her usual dazzeling materials with discarded fashion relics. This was eluded to in the press release which stated that it causes a convergence of high and low, thus creating a tension leading viewers to reflect on the beauty of the discarded object. However, this nuanced “beauty” is difficult to reflect upon, since the works are so embellished with analogous materials: glossy paint, resin and jewels. Introducing fashion objects also poses a dangerous kitsch youth element, which are native to the works of artists like Jim Lambie, but feel contrived in Lei’s new work.

I hope she will proceed carefully and continue her new explorations. Overall the show was disappointing and the shift into new territory seemed to lack judgment. I still remain partial to the strength of her older work with the more heavily encrusted objects. She owns that work, which is why it is disappointing to see her neglecting this for derivative metaart.

Circa Art Fair & Tongue Service to Carlos Betancourt here:

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson4-14-08.asp

(Thanks to criticalmiami.com for following links):

Miami Herald on Whitney Biennial:

http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/story/483344.html

Bert Rodriguez in Time Blog:

http://time-blog.com/looking_around/2008/03/guest_blog_cmonster_sees_the_w.html

Bert Rodriguez video on Whitney installation:

http://whitney.org/www/2008biennial/www/?section=home&page=video

Twenty Twenty Projects in Biscayne Times:

http://www.biscaynetimes.com/art/2007/art_0308_2020.html

Slide Show on Wendy Wisher from Miami Herald:

http://www.miamiherald.com/924/gallery/452688.html?number=0

Pepe Mar’s Raw Sewage is at David Castillo Gallery from April 12th until May 3rd, 2008. This is Mar’s second solo show at David Castillo Gallery. Previously he has shown at Freight and Volume in New York City and at Rocket Projects and Ambrosino Gallery in Miami. In 2008 he will have another solo show at White Flag Projects in St. Louis, MO.

Pepe Mar’s art has been steadfastly non-elitist and open to everyone, which is no small feat and in a sense makes him a very old world artist. Only recently has “intuitive art” come back into favor in the art world. Once again, we see a direct link from artists like Cy Twombly and Robert Raushenberg to their contemporary heirs: artists like Rachael Harrison, Franz West, Isa Genzken and Rebecca Warren. Mar, an artist of Mexican decent who’s work which had traditionally been collage, has no doubt picked up on this trend and started making more sculpturally based work. As it turns out, this is a much welcomed change.

The exhibition consists of approximately 9 sculptures made from wooden debris, four papier mache heads, and a cluster of smaller multi-media paintings. The vivid sculptures, which are life size in relation to the human body, are the first thing you encounter when entering the gallery. They appear to be inspired by Aztec deities, Tiki totems, and more surprisingly, Cubism. These strange and somewhat dated references in Mar’s work actually come off as refreshing in the pond of artists dealing with consumer culture and appropriation.

The insistent silliness of Mar’s collage works had always been problematic for me. Like Picasso, Mar’s discomfort with “pure” abstraction always facilitated a return to the recognizable forms: eyes, mouths, noses, etc… As the exhibition’s title points out, the newer works are a filtration or reclamation of Mar’s previous language. Instead of goofy faces floating on seas of pop abstraction, the human visage Mar clings to is more integrated and grounded in the structural logic of the bodies they sit upon.

The four brightly colored papier mache heads sitting upon high pedestals are seemingly a throw back to the collage heads that Mar is traditionally known for, however their organic sensibilities and artifact-like presentation differentiate them. Reminiscent of shrunken heads or African masks, the heads are playful and instigating and remain true to the accessible nature of Mar’s work.

Mar’s Achilles heal has always been excess and this exhibition is no exception. The show could have greatly benefited from some editing. Physical space in which to step back and enjoy the work would have been welcomed, as the power of these pieces mixed with how many of them there are is a little asphyxiating. However, one interesting development illuminated by this exhibitions overkill is Mar’s recent experimentation into purely abstract forms. The abstract pieces in the show aren’t quite as resolved or interesting as the figurative pieces, but they are certainly notable for their potential.

Pepe Mar proves to be developing into a rare bird and his show is an interesting surprise in this month’s slew of anticlimactic gallery exhibitions. I highly recommend it to anyone who is tired of the loosely investigated monotony of “serious” themes presented in other Miami shows this month.

Synesthethics is a group exhibition curated by Felice Gordon at Locust Projects.  The exhibition runs from March 8^th through April 26^th, 2008. 

I had not planned to write about the Synesthetics exhibition at Locust Projects but I was recently reminded of it when I recently came across a New York Times article on a physician named Dr. Anne Adams who developed a neurological disease called Frontotemporal Dementia and symptomatically developed “artistic” abilities.  Inspired by Maurice Ravel, Dr. Adams made paintings derived from the systematic translation of his musical composition, Bolero.  Synesthesia is a neurologically-based phenomenon in which stimulus of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. I’m guessing then that Synesthethics is art created from this phenomena in the same way that Dr. Adam’s visual paintings are based off of Ravel’s musical structure.

A painting by Dr. Anne Adams.

This type of conceptual basis for creation is nothing new.  One simply needs to look at allegorical or abstract art to find abundant examples.  Synesthetics however, suggests that technology (digital technology to be specific) facilitates synesthesia, because as Felice Gordon explains in the exhibition pamphlet, it allows creators to, “substitute, replace, graft, and exchange freely based on wants, needs, and the drift of free association”.   For the argument of this review we will take this association for granted, though it seems a little redundant seeing as the human brain does this every second, especially when creating art.  

 What results from this lengthy exhibition justification is a show involving art represented by video, architecture, design, photography, installation and painting. Wait a minute, did I say architecture and design?   Since this is an exhibition investigating synesthesia and technology in a venue that heralds “sight specific” installation, then it seems almost mandatory that lots of interdisciplinary meshing would occur.  Right? 

 So then, onto the “art”.  Greeting you at the entrance of Locust is Lawrence Blough’s sprawling wood installation installed by unskilled laborers.  While creating an installation derived from a lily pad’s efficient structural organization is quirky at best from a contemporary arts vantage, the piece does have synesthetic value of instantly reminding the viewing of cheesy South Beach clubs.  Which is then poignant in Miami, no?

 Inside you will find another puzzling installation by Monica Tiulescu. The piece is created with 870 hand cut PVC pipes, a lot of binder clips, and is arranged representing a system of repetition derived from Maya (which apparently is incredibly powerful modeling software).   The piece is referred to as a synesthetic landscape, but comes off visually as rather rudimentary or naive as installation art. The only qualifications I could think of for having this curiosity in a venue for contemporary art, as opposed to a design center, is that the piece was created to be sight specific and it isn’t functional.

 Painting in this exhibition is woefully represented by Sylvan Lionni.  Since early abstraction, many artists have sought to express religious sentiments through non-representational methods. Geometric abstraction is no exception from this practice.  Lionni’s panel paintings are designed based off of the numerical structure of a specific Jewish prayer.  As geometric art in the year 2008, they are frankly boring. As a valid vessel for a religious experience, well this is left up to the individual viewer to decide.

 Perhaps ironically, the more interesting art in this exhibition comes in the form of photography and video.  Samantha Salzinger’s promising photographs of synthetic landscapes are subtle if not a little environmentally sentimental.  Marcia Lyon’s has simple yet satisfying video pieces of fuzzed environments with some kind of dynamic algorithm occurring over top them.  They are intended as environmentally conscious works but are more reminiscent of MTV interludes between network content and commercial material.

 Much of the “art” in this exhibition appears justified in an arts venue simply because it engages the dialogue of what art actually is and can be these days.  Unfortunately, a lot of this work ignores the qualities of what art has previously been: a visually engaging and intellectual dialogue. 

Clifton Childree’s silent film It Gets Worse is screening at Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts from March 8^th through April 5^th, 2008.   The film is approximately 30 minutes long and is screened in the project room.   He will be creating an installation this summer at Locust Projects for their Hilger Award. He was awarded the 2004 Cultural Consortium Grant for his film, The Flew and was awarded the 2007 Legalarts Native Seeds grant. 

Q: So what do you get when you cross Popeye, Eraserhead era David Lynch, scatology and Paul McCarthy-esque genital mutlilation? 

A: Apparently, you end up with something that resembles the line up of what Clifton Childree typically dreams about on any given night.  

Clifton Childree is one of Miami’s kept best secrets. Kept best because he is positioning himself to become the John Waters of Miami.  Childree’s preferred medium is multi-genre silent films that meld slapstick, horror and stop animation.  His most recent film, It Gets Worse, is a mix of nightmare like sequences, starting in innocuous venues like a ship or a maritime haunted bar.  This provides a setting for a string of seedy events involving an unsettling mix of murder, cremation, potty humor and lots of male crotch and ass shots.

The film is projected from an antique projector and the props provided in the screening room echo the film’s seedy maritime local.  For instance, there is an old telephone hung near to a hat rack, but in place of a mouthpiece it has a banana shaped object protruding from it resembling feces.  These sides show curiosities are lost as the film itself steals the show.

The falsified historical events that Childree provides us with are governed by the body, the necessities of male bodily functions to be specific, and the villainy and bullying are counter balanced only by the femininity of death (represented by the vaginal opening of the crematoriums oven).  When the criminal element gets too abundant, the spirit of death possess a victim, granting him supernatural powers to wreck revenge on the male aggressors.   Lots of violence directed at the penis and scrotum ensue and the bodies of the dead return to the orifice of the womb, hence they came, erasing their existence and leaving only myth in their place.

There are some semblances of a prerequisite narrative and film seems to hint at class-oriented commentary in the guise of comical relief.   For instance, proper toiletry seems elude each of the slumming characters in this film.  One hilarious sequence features some dolt pondering correct ass powdering procedures.   I’m not sure what was funnier: Watching someone rub their taint on a powdered bed post or the unsuspecting senior wincing in disgust during the screening I attended.         

I left the screening feeling noxious but the film remained with my thoughts the next day.  Like David Lynch, Childree’s open ended films leave you unable to conveniently summate all of the pieces, which is highly rewarding if you like mystery and curiosities.  If Childree’s fictionalized mythologies sound overly complicated (they are) then more than one viewing is advised.

Recent review of 2008 Whitney Biennial by Jerry Saltz. Features a much needed but rather obvious point on Relational Esthetics:

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/saltz3-24-08.asp

Recent story in The New York Times city section on Bert Rodriguez:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/nyregion/07bigcity.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Bert+Rodriguez&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Recent story in The New York Times travel section on the Miami Art Scene:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/travel/03miami.html?scp=3&sq=Bert+Rodriguez&st=nyt

Hernan Bas: Works From the Rubell Family Collection runs from December 5, 2007 through November 28, 2008.  The exhibition is a mini retrospective of sorts, which consists of 38 works the Rubells have purchased over the last nine years of this artists career.  The works consist of paintings, video installations and drawings. Bas has exhibited in international galleries such as Victoria Miro Gallery, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Daniel Reich Gallery, Sandroni Rey Gallery and at Frederick Snitzer Gallery here in Miami.

 Hernan Bas is somewhat of a mythological figure in the Miami Art Scene.  He was one of the first second generation Miami artist to successfully breach other art markets, and he did so at a very early age.  While other successful artists like Luis Gispert have moved on to other cities, Bas continues to live and work in Miami despite his success.  One can hardly imagine the Miami art scene as the viable and reputable scene it is today without the presence of Hernan Bas. 

Yet the artist himself is very shy and under spoken and it is seldom he comes out to participate in the very art scene his work has played such a large role in sustaining.  A recent set of lectures revealed little or nothing about the rich hermetic and homoerotic coding in his work. I was even hard pressed to find another review written on his retrospective. 

In an interview from the exhibition’s catalogue, which is unfortunately designed and printed poorly, Bas states that he doesn’t like to be labeled a painter because he feels it is conceptually limiting.  It is however hard to label Bas otherwise because he is best known for his rich and beautiful narrative paintings, which often depict waify boys engaging in mysterious and intriguing adventures.  There are four rather impressive video installations but they feel conceptually dependent on the narrative stage and tone set in his paintings.

In a recent lecture at The Rubell Family Collection, visiting curator Dominic Molon likened Bas’ paintings to Karen Kilimnik and Elizabeth Peyton.  He noted that all three artists were romanticizing their subjects through classical Nineteenth Century ideals.  However one gets the sense that Bas’ paintings are more than romantic revisions seen through the encoded lens of gay and pop culture. The decadence of that century is certainly present in his work, but so is the modern frail and tangled human psyche that infers the improbability of such utopias.   For every imagined nostalgic indulgence Bas takes, his neurotic painterly language pushes us back into the white cube.  It is this futility and it’s relationship to the Herculean task of reinventing painting in a “post art” world that makes his work conceptually relevant today.  

Bas’ most intriguing paintings, and there are many such as Apollo with Daphne as a Boy or a recent painting of St. Sebastian (which isn’t in this retrospective) can be as rich and lush as a living coral reef.  He is gifted with an unrivaled gestural touch at creating complex microcosms.  Also, when Bas achieves a commonality between his historical references and his contemporary sensual touch the effect is immediate and meaningful.  Jewels like Blue Line seamlessly bridge a hundred year sensibility gap between Gustave Moreau and Derek Jarmin’s film Jubilee. 

As one would expect from such a limiting retrospective, the offering is somewhat uneven and relies completely on The Rubell’s preferences and their opportunities to obtain his higher caliber pieces.  Fortunately for Bas, The Rubells saw promise in his work from the beginning and this exhibition has numerous examples from every phase in his development thus far. Bas artistic growth over the last nine years is commendable, but you will be experiencing it in slow motion as there is a lot of boring and formative chackas lumped in with his more stellar pieces.  Unfortunately career defining pieces from other collections like Posing With Antlers In 100 Year (Haunted) Cabin couldn’t be squeezed into the show to provide more weight to the argument of what makes Bas’ work so great.  

It becomes painfully evident when viewing lots of Bas’ paintings at once that his ability to paint landscapes and the figures has not evolved at an even rate.  If Bas has become a master at creating lush and varied environments, the figures he chooses to inhabit these places are often painted in a placid, flat or unintentionally stereotypical manner.  It is his inability or resistance towards creating more successfully integrated figurative elements that sometimes prevents Bas’ narratives from achieving their emotional and visual potential, leaving them in an illustrative limbo. This problem is most evident in the larger more recent pictures in the exhibition, such as The Great Barrier Wreath and The Immaculate Lactation of Saint Bernard where the figures are the least interesting aspect of the complex and dynamic worlds they inhabit. 

Whatever the shortfalls of Hernan Bas’ retrospective are, one has to remember that we are observing the output of a very young artist’s first nine years of work.  With that in mind the offering is very strong and should be considered a gift from The Rubells to the art scene they helped establish.  Walking through the rooms of this mini retrospective should quell anybody’s skepticism of why he is considered one of Miami’s brightest artists.  And in the end there is much more that can be said about Bas’ work than one review could ever cover and that is the sign of an artist working in a rich and vast oeuvre.   

Wendy Wischer opened a new exhibition titled North-South-East-West or N-S-E-W I believe. This is her second solo exhibition at the David Castillo Gallery and it runs from March 8th till sometime in April 2008. Her show consists of mostly sculptural works with one video/sculpture offering. Wischer has been working in Miami for some time now. She has also taught at the New World School of the Arts, teaching younger artists like Adler Guerrier, Bhakti Baxter and many others. She is one of the 2008 recipients of the South Florida Cultural Consortium for Visual Arts.

Glitter by Wendy Wischer

Upon entering the Castillo gallery space to the left are three large egg like structures adjacent to each other titled Glitter. They are about ten times the size of a regular egg and are completely covered with small square cut pieces of mirror, almost like shinny dinosaur eggs. I think they are supposed embody some sort of smooth round like rocks similar to those found at the bottom of a river or decorating some trendy landscaped garden. This work is a continuation of the same disco ball antics Ms. Wischer has been repeatedly exploiting for sometime now. The new variation here is simply scale.

Just to the right is a video work called Wish You Were Here. This piece projects the appearance of a puddle of water experiencing the first drops of impending rain. The water is projected onto a rounded pedestal with a small border around the top. This creates the effect of the pedestal actually containing water similar to some kind of a well. My problem with this work is the angle the video was taken from is not directly from above. As you walk around the projection, the perspective of the water is off. I understand the conundrum of filming a reflective surface, but surely there had to have been a more effective way. This particular piece brings to mind a more successful work by Olafur Eliasson in which he projects rippling water from the opposite side of a wall that doubles as a screen. The beauty in Eliasson’s piece is that your not sure where exactly the water is and your own footsteps are causing the ripples.

As you turn to the other side of the gallery, on the main wall is Angels & Ancestors IX. This piece is made-up of a cluster of small trees mounted on the wall. The entire cluster is made up of small components composed of three trees mounted on small oval platforms as thin as plywood. These platforms are then installed on the wall. This work was the most disappointing in the show. It seemed like a good idea, but it just doesn’t work. It just seems like the piece was prepackage for carry out. I would think the wire and plastic trees would have worked far better directly implanted into the wall without the “portable” little platforms. More along the lines of Maria Fernanda Cardoso’s Cemetery-Vertical Garden. Cardoso took artificial lilies and mounted them directly onto the gallery wall creating a far more daring and successful installation.

Directly to the left is another rock like structure that appears to be floating or hovering over a light source emitting from underneath the object. This piece is called Standing Ground and it looks more like a garbage bag full of boxes with a lamp inside than some mystical hovering rock floating on a blanket of light. Given my contempt for the execution of this work, this was the only one that resonated most for me in the show.

Overall, I’m not particularly keen Wischer’s practice. In my opinion, one of her best works has been Full to Wailing and Back Again in which she projects the image of the moon onto the walls of buildings. This work is one of the only that slightly challenges us to think about nature and technology in a genuine and challenging way. As for the rest of her oeuvre, it only seems to barely scratch the surface of what is possible, I say this looking back at Eliasson, Cardoso or even Teresita Fernandez. All of these artists are not just offering us multiple variations of crystals and mirror or shiny trees and rocks made portable ready for delivery to a collectors home. They are engaging us with intense and sometimes unsettling investigations of nature and technology, mathematics and physics or even perception, space and time.

We need to be able to look beyond the shiny surfaces and open ourselves to be challenged and only then will we understand the fulfillment of living with or experiencing works that will outlive us all. Unfortunately, these works are not them.