I finally got a chance to see Patricia Hickson’s first curatorial swing at the Wadsworth‘s Matrix gallery and I have to say that I hope she’s with us for a long time. Matrix 158 features German sculptor Kitty Kraus and her haunting and exciting lightboxes. This exhibit opened on February 4th and is up til May 2.
It’s interesting that the exhibit catalog (which is always available free of charge) mentions a guillotine in its opening paragraph. In John Moore’s 2006 remake of The Omen, the foreshadowed deaths of some of the victims was manifested by a sharp streak of light on an image of the said victim. That being said, my initial take on the exhibit did not conjure any such violent imagery. Let’s delve in…
The first thing one notices is that the main (western) entrance to the gallery is sealed. As you walk around to the only (southern) entrance you’re confronted with a long, dark room beaming with lines of light. Initially, I thought that, along with the sealing of an entrance, the staff also lowered the ceiling, such was the tunnel-like effect from the entrance. In the room you have 7 light boxes with 3 each placed along the eastern and western walls and one placed on the southern wall close to the entrance. One of the western boxes is also placed on a bench whereas all the others are on the floor.
Each box has a light within it that leaks out via the edges. While a bright light, some of the streaks are an eerie tinge of green due to the type of glass used. The effect is incredible. I jotted down three separate things that came to mind:
• “exercise in perspective” – you know that second week in high school art class where your asked to draw line from an originating point and draw buildings along the perspective?…like that
• Pandora’s box – the legend states that all the evils of society spilled out with only hope remaining.
• A blueprint type of drawing of a skeletal 3d room with all the beams around the viewer.
One box that was about 9″ away from the wall created a beautiful scene of a futuristic metropolis right on the wall while another painted a haunting twin towers like scene. As you followed streaks onto the ceiling it was hard to see where one ended and one from another box started. I highly encourage visitors to pick up the catalog (again, it’s free!) Ms. Hickson has written a very accessible essay going further into the boxes as well as Kitty’s other works.
But my trip didn’t end there!!
My bud Helder Mira told me a bit ago about a new Contemporary Art wing on the 3rd floor. I decided to check it out while I was there…I’m glad I did.
The Wadsworth now has on the 3rd floor a total of five spaces dedicated to contemporary art. The first is an interactive room they call the CT. Gallery. The idea looks like the following, they focus on one piece from their collection and invite people on a journey to understand what is going through the artists mind. The piece on exhibit today was Mark Dion’s Providence Cabinet. There are three mini-sections within the gallery named Connect/Create/Comment, this is where people are encouraged to add a response to the piece. There was also a Hudson River painting that totally threw me off, but I have to admit I didn’t fully focus on this gallery because I was in a hurry, but a return visit is in order.
The next space is actually the entire eastern side of the “square” that looks down on the fountain. It was filled with Contemporary Abstractions which I have to tell you I am NOT a fan of so I walked right through through it.
The next section is actually three galleries with only one entrance which spills in from the aforementioned walk thru into the middle gallery. This gallery housed pieces by Pop Art legends such as Warhol, Wasselmann, and a personal favorite, Ruschenberg’s Retroactive 1. (at right)
The next gallery to the east is a small gallery that holds a collection titled The Elusive Portrait. This collection showed off the most recent acquisition by the Wadsworth entitled The Prospect by Michaël Borremans. The piece was acquired in 2008. Now before I continue I have to mention that as I enter this room I do what i think many people do and start with the most left of the pieces and work my way clockwise along the gallery wall. Borremans’ piece is the first one and you have a couple other pieces and you come across a really strong Cindy Sherman piece and then I turn to see the last piece and….my day is complete. The last piece in this gallery is Felix Gonzalez-Torres‘ Untitled (Perfect Lovers), one of my all time favorite works. Created after the death of Felix’ partner to AIDS, the piece incorporates two industrial clocks synced in unison and placed next to each other. Due to each battery losing power at a different rate than the next, the pieces slowly lose their uniformity.
Last, but not least, is a small space that WAMA has dedicated this rotation to video, specifically Bruce Conner’s Breakaway. As I sat watching the 5 minute video, I quietly wished that the Wadsworth would invest in the video works of Shirin Neshat (below).
and with that I left, the entire trip took less than an hour cuz I was in a hurry to get back to City Hall, but well worth it and I will most definitely be back.