Sarah Sze: Timelapse at the Guggenheim

 The Sarah Sze exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum is an immersive experience that showcases the artist’s mastery of sculpture, installation, and space. The show is titled “Timelapse,” and it consists of a series of installations that explore the concept of constant movement, transformation, and evolution through time.

As you enter her section viewers are immediately drawn to the first installation, which is a massive mix of painting and sculpture as well as projected video creating an interplay of various different medias to make one piece. It is a striking and mesmerizing piece that sets the tone for the rest of the exhibit.

Throughout the show, Sze plays with the relationship between objects, space, and time. She creates intricate and delicate installations that are both beautiful and unsettling. My favorite of which is the last piece at the end of the seventh level, entitled Timekeeper (2016). A fully immersive experience, the visitors walk into a dark room lit up by the overflowing desk in the center. The desk is absolutely filled with objects, some everyday ones and others much more rare. There is also an overabundance of images, both moving and still. Digital clocks litter the desk with different times from different places in the world showcasing the unfolding of time and how it guides us. 

Overall, Sarah Sze’s show “Timelapse” is a mastery of well thought out installation, playing into the architecture of the Guggenheim as well as on the spot video editing to achieve her aligned projections. And while abstract, there is a narrative being performed which conveys a message to the audience, though it is left to the viewer to decide what that is.

-Emily Burak