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.     

WANGECHI MUTU INTERTWINED - New Museum

Intertwined presents a comprehensive collection of Wangechi Mutu’s work throughout her career. Using, and often combining, mediums such as drawing, painting, performance, sculpture, and video, Mutu’s work speaks to the legacies of colonialism and stylistically references historical issues in a uniquely folkloric voice. Intertwined calls these current realities into question and using her work presents models for the future, as it is largely informed by feminism, Afro-futurism, and representation of African and diasporic culture. This show itself is named after one of its featured collages, which encompasses many of the artist's consistent and characteristic themes including hybridity and transmutation.

This show was very successful in depicting and questioning the impacts of historical violence on women, the way we are connected, and how that itself connects us to other life forms. Perhaps one of Mutu’s most successful endeavors presented in this show was her method of collaging, and her flawless execution of effective composition. Mutu elevates this medium, by placing these objects that are originally foreign to each other, whether that be literally and/or conceptually, as interconnected on the space and “working together” to create one complex figure or setting. Moreover, many of these pieces read as paintings from far away and as the viewer approaches, they begin to slowly discover collaged pieces, further strengthening her mission of conveying symbiosis and relationships between separate bodies.

- Heather Ortiz

Daniel Lind-Ramos: El Viejo Griot at MoMa PS1

 Daniel Lind-Ramos uses found objects of personal and universal significance to create sculptures and video installations. “El Viejo Griot” draws on experiences of Hurricane Maria and the COVID-19 pandemic. His sculptures are monumental in height and are three-dimensional, with many lacking a dominating frontal view. The works are contrived in a way that allows viewers to experience multiple angles of them. Some sculptures are placed against the gallery walls, while others are centrally placed in individual gallery rooms. By isolating select works, the viewer has the opportunity to experience them in an intimate setting. This quiet and potentially lonesome environment allows room for self-reflection with Lind-Ramos’ ideas of recalling and overcoming tragedy. 

More specifically, “Ambulance” (2020) forms an emergency vehicle with objects such as a megaphone, emergency lights, and the skeleton of a mattress. The sculpture recalls the COVID-19 lockdown and its impact. This work benefits from its central placement in the room to observe all sides of the makeshift vehicle. The isolation of the sculpture also emphasizes the importance of reflecting on one’s own experience during the peak of the pandemic. Lind-Ramos is also referencing earth elements, which is evident in “María Guabancex” (2018-2022). Guabancex is the spirit known as “the lady of the winds.” This conglomerate of materials he found after Hurricane Maria in 2017, including pieces of roofing, electric cables, and plastic tubing, creates the illusion of a spiraling motion. The assemblage of the materials seems to be referencing that of a barraca, a type of temporary structure that provides refuge. This work successfully mimics the natural disaster Puerto Rico faced, and how the local community adjoined during challenging times.

- Rose

Duke Riley: DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash

 Artist Duke Reilly’s exhibition, DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash at the Brooklyn Museum, presents a multi-media exploration of environmental degradation, specifically in regards to the pollution of the oceans, interpreted through both a historical and contemporary lens. Riley utilizes reclaimed single-use plastics as a medium for ink drawings that mimic scrimshaw, a form of engraving in which sailors would etch whale bones to depict scenes of the ocean. Riley uses things like discarded detergent containers, deodorant sticks, plastic bottles and even lawn flamingos as surfaces to create these contemporary “scrimshaw” works. The repurposing of these materials in this way highlights the contrast between the natural materials that they mimic, and the everlasting nature of plastic. Although the plastic materials that Riley works with stands in complete opposition to the bone that would have originally been used, the works are extremely convincing as scrimshaw objects. Upon first glance, and even upon second glance, I was convinced that these works were engraved bone or ivory. This is in part due to the meticulous color matching that Riley does to mimic the off-white color of the bone, and in part due to the imagery, which also mimics the maritime scenes that would have been portrayed in actual scrimshaw. Riley juxtaposes these traditional maritime scenes with scenes of corporate greed and pollution, and colonialism, creating a conversation between the past, the present, and the dystopian future that is presented by the careless polluting of our oceans and waterfronts. 

“Sarah Sze: Timelapse” at the Guggenheim

At the Guggenheim Sarah Sze has created a web of time and place and object, in “Sarah Sze: Timelapse”. Sze’s site specific work constructs a scaffolding and organized chaos in the rotunda and surrounding spaces. “Timelapse” is a complex layering of sculpture, video, sound, painting and installation. Time is the namesake element of the work, with compositions of images and objects having a sense of history and fluidity. Imagery of birds, clouds and oceans denote peace in the natural world, in contrast with volcanic eruptions and geysers. Natural materials like sand blend with projections and artificial structures. At times the work is architecture, explosive, and ceremonial. Moments of peace are found within the chaos. “Timelapse” encapsulates the overwhelming multitudes of our modern existence.

In regards to “Slice” (2023), Sze describes the sense of transition, as the viewer can envision the construction and collapse. A grid of wood is built in a way that resembles a wave or a dam. Flux and movement are seen throughout the exhibit, works have moving parts and projections with changing imagery. In “A Certain Shot” (2023), a pendulum swings above a mound of salt, as time swings on light dances on the salt, an elemental material in our world. There is a precarious balance to the arrangements, acknowledging the uncertainty of their presence. 

There is a vibrational energy to Sze’s landscapes and interiors. At times it feels like things are crashing in on themselves, or exploding outward into space. The use of technology, screens, and projections is referential to the information overload we experience with the dominance of screens in our surroundings. “Timelapse” draws the viewer into ecosystems of fractured mirrors of our reality.  

Kris Thomas

East of Sun, West of Moon exhibition by Oscar yi Hou

 The "East of Sun, West of Moon" exhibition by Oscar yi Hou at the Brooklyn Museum focuses on queer Asian American subjects through paintings inspired by reference images, including photographic artworks and Hollywood film stills. Yi Hou utilizes both "Oriental" and "Western" motifs, such as Chinese zodiac signs, Taoist symbols, cowboy hats, and American flags, to explore the concept of who is considered "American" in this political climate. The exhibition also highlights the limitations of the term "Asian American" and challenges the perception of East Asian individuals as interchangeable and the same.

Through contextualizing the history of the "coolie" slur and its connection to ongoing racially motivated violence against Asian American communities, the exhibition works to shed light on the belittling status assigned to East Asian immigrants in America. One particularly striking work, "Ends of Empire," features the American flag with a queer Filipino friend standing against it, who recently became an American citizen, and a weaved original poem that alludes to U.S. imperialism in trans-pacific regions. The painting powerfully critiques the struggle of embracing a new identity while acknowledging the values and practices forced upon other communities by the same place. The facial expression on the man's face showcases this internal conflict of embracing a new identity while not fully being accepted. Oscar yi Hou's "East of Sun, West of Moon" exhibition is a significant display of contemporary art and social justice, exploring intersectional identities, queerness, and Asian American history in a unique and relevant way.

-Andrea S

Sophia Narret: Carried by Wonder

 Sophia Narret: Carried by Wonder

As one walks into Sophia Narret’s showcase at the Perrotin, they are greeted with largely black space with detailed pops of color scattered about the walls. Carried by Wonder consists of a collection of meticulously embroidered narratives that utilize thread on organically unraveled canvases to depict an exploration of “the liberties and restrictions of modern womanhood. The artworks themselves are technically impressive as each stitch flows organically into the other and the transitions from one vibrant color to another are smooth. 

However, the overall presentation leaves much to be desired. The generally 20” x 20” organic canvas shapes are too large of a space as about three-fourths of the gallery walls are left bare. This emptiness does a disservice to the extraordinary pieces themselves as the room does not guide the viewer to look at the details of each work. Within each piece, a narrative describing a different woman’s story is unveiled through tiny details and requires a meticulous eye to discover a naked body amongst a crowd of clothed people, for example. Perhaps sharing the space with a compatible artist would have benefitted Carried by Wonder by compacting the space. This could foster an organic layout more interesting than its original evenly distributed art piece per four feet along the wall. Likewise, a close-knit but organized layout could entice viewers to slow down and further take in the details of each piece both in narrative and technical construction.