D’Amelio Terras, New York
February 6 – February 21, 2009
Carl Andre
Massimo Bartolini
Tony Feher
Christian Holstad
Cornelia Parker
Selections is a brief exhibition of sculptural works that inspire a dialogue between flatness and volume. Depth and three-dimensional space are compressed in Carl Andre’s Thirteenth Aluminum Cardinal, 1978 as it marks a 13-step, horizontal path from the wall to the center of the gallery. Cornelia Parker’s silver-plated, steamrolled horns, playfully titled, Rorschach (Double Flat), 2005, hovers in suspense with smashed valves and bells strung up to the rafters. The folding and unfolding of a larger-than-life paper airplane in Massimo Bartolini’s Airplane, 2005 subtly contracts at its highlighted seams as if preparing to return to its object form.
Conversely, two-dimensional strips encase and cover other objects, finding fullness in adopted forms. Christian Holstad’s Trumpeting Skull, 2003 is bound with gray duct-tape. From the skull’s mouth unfurls a party horn, bursting into shimmery magenta ribbons. Tony Feher’s Untitled (Sugar and Spice Over the Counter Device), 2000-2003 gives the viewer an aerial view of 93 small, consumer product boxes wrapped with aluminum foil tape that sprawls across the floor in a maquette cityscape.
Beyond the formal similarities and sculptural strategies that these works share, their grouping was also inspired by the recent landing of the US Airway flight 1549 on the nearby Hudson river, which has been described as the Miracle on the Hudson, and invite the viewer to a narrative and light reading of minimal works, taking a departure from the “what you see is what you see” dogma.
