Sarah Sze: Timelapse at the Guggenheim

Sarah Sze’s sculptural installation pieces in her recent show, Timelapse at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, are multi dimensional in the truest sense. Upon first encounter with much of the work, I felt as though I was looking at the ruins of a fairy house constructed by child prodigies who found a box of electronics in the closet of a science classroom. Using painting, video, plants, sculpture, photography, motorized mechanisms, and raw building tools such as ladders or wooden dowels, Sze’s show is at once a serendipitous juxtaposition of found objects and a careful balance between the mechanical and natural.        

Timelapse is the perfect collection to demand attention within the unique container of the Guggenheim’s rotunda. While the work within the main gallery space is complemented by the bright sun from the skylight, which provides ever-changing shadows, I was especially moved by her piece “Timekeeper” (2016), which is housed in a dark gallery space off of the rotunda. This piece looks at first like the messy studio space of an astronomer or hoarder, with plants, books, and materials stacked on top of each other in the center of the room. Yet upon closer inspection, like much of the work, the arrangement continues to expand in many dimensions. Particularly with her use of fans and projected video work, the inclusion of moving elements allows for a sense of being surrounded by the installation to the point that the viewer becomes part of the work. As the show’s title indicates, Sze’s union of seemingly disparate elements, successfully reaches towards the intricacies, complexities, and boundlessness of life.