Like many of Larry Bell’s works, VFGY9 deals primarily with the viewer’s experience of sight. The blocks resemble a stone carving, or slabs of wood shaped into a simple organic composition whose overall sheen is varied through a thin layer of aluminum vapor. Yet, the real material of Bell’s piece is actually light, formed within the viewer’s eye into masses as present as stone.
Often associated with the Light and Space movement—which as also includes James Turrell, Robert Irwin, and John McCracken—Larry Bell has been an important figure and influence in the West Coast contemporary art scene since the early 1960s. Less interested in the material, concrete qualities of the object than in heightening awareness of the environment in which it is situated, his abstract geometric sculptural works possess a certain mystical aspect and engage the viewer in a myriad of perceptual experiences.
Though not strictly representational, some objects in Untitled (1962) are recognizable: a flower, an egg, a foot...
McCarthy’s Mother Pig performance at Shushi Gallery in 1983 was the first time he used a set, a practice which came to characterize his later works...
Compositions such as Tree on Keystone (2011) become hyperreal versions of their real-world equivalents...
Blalock resists the immediacy that we have come to expect from photography—that each photograph should communicate its message without delay...
Nugroho’s installations and performances have their roots in the shadow puppet rituals in Indonesia, particularly the Javanese Wayang tradition whose essence is in the representation of the shadows...
Untitled (Construction) recalls the series of glass cubes that gained Bell international recognition in the 1960s...
Compositions such as Tree on Keystone (2011) become hyperreal versions of their real-world equivalents...
Blalock resists the immediacy that we have come to expect from photography—that each photograph should communicate its message without delay...
Milena Bonilla’s discursive practice explores connections among economics, territory, and politics through everyday interventions...
Gated Commune , a video by Camel Collective, is a critique of the complex, and often obtuse, language used to describe sustainable development projects...
For I use to eat lemon meringue pie till I overloaded on my pancreas with sugar and passed out; It seemed to be a natural response to a society of abundance (1978), also known as the Bodybuilder series, Martinez asked male bodybuilding competitors to pose in whatever position felt “most natural.” They are obviously trained in presenting their ambitiously carved physiques, but their facial expressions seem comparatively unstudied...
Untitled (Construction) recalls the series of glass cubes that gained Bell international recognition in the 1960s...
Though not strictly representational, some objects in Untitled (1962) are recognizable: a flower, an egg, a foot...
The stained glass windows of Chloé Quenum’s Les Allégories evoke the sacred and describe the movement of a rooster in the form of patterns extracted from a wax fabric found in Benin...