The sculptures and installations of MyeongBeom Kim are very dreamlike – it makes just enough sense to prevent you questioning it. Objects transform into other objects, other inexplicably float, and yet others are designed to be entirely useless. Yet, somehow, it all seems right. Also like dreams, Kim’s work is playful but not without out a latent sense of anxiety. A noose, a crutch, an axe suggest a possible dark turn toward realized fears, a nightmare.
Jeremy Laffon‘s series of installations are entirely constructed from chewing gum. He painstakingly builds each of his installations with this unusual material. The precision and care he gives to his work is contrasted by the material itself. Chewing gum isn’t particularly strong or sturdy – the lattice work structure buckling under its own weight, or tiled gum easily giving way underfoot. Chewing gum is also associated with casualness, rude to chew in formal settings, spit out when finished with: a pleasant surprise in an often stuffy art world.
Artist Zsuzsi Csiszer’s installation may at first seem massively out of place. An actual subway car emerges out of the floor into the Museum Kiscelli in Budapest. It seems poised to make a stop and move on to its next otherworldly destination. The subway clearly references a journey – one of more significance than just from one neighborhood to another. More importantly perhaps, subway cars transport groups of people. Maybe it sounds cheesy, but the piece is similar to a larger journey we all make. One in which we share with various people who come and go.
Artist Berlinde De Bruyckere‘s installations are disturbing. Horses, apparently deformed or mutilated, are scattered throughout the gallery. Some are draped lifeless; others are seem to be frozen while flailing in panic. The forms are clearly horses, their shape undeniable. However their faces are elusive and missing as if in a nightmare. De Bruyckere’s installation’s inspire conflicting feelings of compassion, disgust, and fear. It should be mentioned that none of these horses were killed or harmed for the art work. Rather, De Bruyckere selected the horses while alive but did not use their bodies until they died of natural causes.
The installations of Carly Fisher may at first appear to be trash strewn galleries. However, closer inspection reveals that none of the items are actual garbage. Rather, Fisher carefully recreates litter from little more than paper and glue. The meticulous attention she gives to sculpting trash replicas, so to say, may seem odd. However, the familiar international name brands dotting the gallery floor raise the question: do these corporations possibly give the same meticulous attention to the branding of litter as Fischer? As one of her gallery statements puts it, “Perhaps there is a marketing edge to trash?”
David Ogle‘s installations seem to glow right out of the space they effeminate from. His work is mainly constructed with thread illuminated ultraviolet light. However, Ogle’s installations are not only built of the thread, but the space they emphasize and the light itself. Underscoring this Ogle says:
“ Much of my work to date has dealt with exploring notions of materiality, of permanence and of the perception of objects in space. Using light as a sculptural medium, my work is innately ephemeral.”
If you like David Ogle’s work be sure to check out the work of JeongMoon Choi.
The installations of Damian Ortega reflect a curiosity that is at once childlike and serious. His dismantled, dissected, carefully arranged pieces often hang from the ceiling prepared for inspection. Ortega’s installations encourage viewers to think about relationships between the parts and its whole, between individuals items and the group. It’s easy to see how these ideas can expand to wider topics. In a way, Ortega not only takes apart a Volkswagen physically, but also socially. He deconstructs ideas in a playfully literal way.
