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Elisa D�Arrigo at Elizabeth Harris Gallery,
529 West 20th Street to March 8 |
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These pieces exist in a strange netherworld of their own making that is somewhere between sculpture and painting. They hang off walls or pile up on the floor but become most interesting when the flow is from one place to the other. That they are tactile to the max pushes the sculptural reading that much harder. But the effect of the floor/wall relationship keeps the latter reading from becoming a fait complete. They almost seem to flatten out a bit, contouring themselves to the vertical and horizontal parameters. This creates an additionally interesting, understated tension in the work; a sense of gravity making its presence felt. The larger pieces have the appearance of sliding off the walls to the floor and dissipating across the floor. Even a freestanding piece like Budding #6 seems to struggle to stand up against then force of gravity. However, none of this is the first thing to grab your attention. |
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Elisa D�Arrigo, Budding #6, 2001, cloth, acrylic medium, acrylic paint, thread,
33 x 47 x 49 in |
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It is the cellular structures and the obsession with which they are created that initially draw the eye. For her subject matter D�Arrigo taps into the world of micro biology and then makes it really macro. A piece like Cross Section, for example, simultaneously reads like an inside view of a hornet�s nest gone mad and as a collection of organic cells. Has the cellular world suddenly mutated into something huge or have we shrunk to its scale? These conflicting sensations hit you simultaneously when confronting this work. They |
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Elisa D�Arrigo, Cross Section, 2001, cloth, acrylic medium, acrylic paint, thread,
33 x 29 x 4 in |
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further possess a sensibility that also suggests a sci-fi esthetic and offer a number of multi-layered interpretations. They are �of� the world in a natural sense by suggesting a view of organic growth with a relationship to gravity. Yet, they are equally apart from the world too in referencing intangible shadowy corners of the imagination. This indeterminate state, as expressed in these material, very tactile objects goes deep into the meaning of this work. |
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The next thing to catch your eye is the magnificently understated, rather �dry� color that seems to caress each piece. The overriding color in each is self-referential; it stays within a solo collection of hues even as it modulates contrast and intensity. Look again at Cross Section and notice the quality of the blue tones that permeate and help define the forms. Yet the forms also affect the color as shadows play in and out of the negative spaces. By assigning a single color array to each piece, D�Arrigo enhances the forms without distracting from them. A mixture of hues could overly complicate the delicacy established in this work. |
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