Are you on to find some peace of mind, are you aware of the mess you left behind
Looking back in a mirror, it all becomes clear, the views are not the S A M E
- jose gonzalez, left behind
1. "In this project, Omer Arbel explores sandcasting, a relatively imprecise way to produce metal objects en masse. The overspill, an inherent part of this method, is used to advantage by creating wholly unique objects. The resulting copper trays are a study in contrast, combining a high polish with a rough, imprecise and unrepeatable edge. We see both elegance and severity, tranquility and volcanism--all from just one material. " (text via the fantastic MATTER NY)
19.0 is an exploration of sand casting technique with various metals. The “overspill” is usually a by product of this process, which is cleaned up after production and re-finished. Instead, in this project we explored the potential formal possibilities of the “overspill” in giving the piece a phenomenological/formal identity unique from any other piece produced in the same manner.
2. Algus Greenspon presents an exhibition of sculpture and works on paper by Bill Bollinger April 21–June 9, 2012. Bill Bollinger is one of the most dauntingly obscure artists of the 1960s and 70s. Although included in many of the most important exhibitions of the period, the transient nature of much of his work and his decision to leave New York City in the early 1970s, followed by personal difficulties and an early death–at 48–in 1988 has left a reputation cosseted largely by anecdote.
The exhibition at Algus Greenspon extends the retrospective’s time line showing–in addition to an early aluminum channel piece, one of only four know to exist–several massive cast iron works from 1973 and Polaroid documentation and drawings from 1977 illustrating Bollinger’s reemerging interest in painting, an interest which continued until the artist’s death. In the late 1960s anti-form and process art were radical post-minimalist alternatives that allowed direct engagement with materials even as conceptualism and performance art were dispensing with objects altogether. Such work avoided the academic tendencies of conceptual art while providing an equivocally straightforward experience of the phenomenal world. Anti-form was a reaction to the increasingly fussy synthetic formalism of minimalism and color field painting, a reaction that was particularly countercultural in being intellectual and romantic, experiential and elusive.
These large solid iron pours were cast in sand gouged out to loosely follow the contours of Northeastern lakes Bollinger had frequented. The process resulted in complex three-dimensional forms, topped by the level fluid surfaces that had become a preoccupation of the artist following a 1968 ocean voyage to Europe. Once solidified and removed from the mold, the sculpture’s defining horizontal plane could be displaced according to the topology of its underlying form. These cast iron pieces are a significant reimagining and summation of themes that had informed the artist’s work up to this point: veracity to material, gravity, fluid definition of form, displacement, edge and monumentality. (text + image taken from here..)