Josephine Meckseper Exhibition
Elizabeth Dee
This event has ended.
Elizabeth Dee Gallery presents an exhibition of new sculptural, photographic and video works by Josephine Meckseper. For this exhibition, Meckseper transforms the gallery into a mirrored achromatic showroom, drawing comparisons between current and past US political strategies.
Meckseper alters the gallery interior through a series of architectural interventions, including a reflective ceiling grid, mirror slat wall and dark fluorescent lighting installed on the perimeter of the gallery floor. The entire exhibition space is activated as a showroom and oversized display vitrine, reflecting its contents on the walls and ceiling. Reminiscent of chrome surfacing in 1980s architecture, the car dealerships along 11th Avenue and the discount stores of the Garment District, Meckseper’s signature shelves and industrial sculptures hang from hooks on a slat wall like merchandise in a discount store. Meckseper’s interventions emphasize both the display and retail functions of gallery space, while the dark fluorescent lighting casts a discomfiting, perpetual and artificial twilight.
Meckseper presents a number of new sculptures including chromed wheels on mirrored pedestals, and a double-sided metallic display rack showcasing disembodied car parts, metal chains, paintings and newspaper images of luxury watches, the US Supreme Court, and Iraqi Shiites protesting the US occupation. These conjunctions in the works manifest the nature of the mirror, both reflective and diatonic. Mirrored surfaces multiply, fracture and expand the space, creating infinite juxtapositions. Images of elusive affluence and phantom notions of economic recovery confront a judiciary declaring an interest in expanding the rights of corporations. Chains binding the hands of Iraqi Shiites echo the chains on the sculptures, evoking the shackling of the US to its automotive-centric industrial past; grids in the racks, ceilings and achromes conjoin to expand the space into an immersive minimalist geometry; and reflections of the viewers collide with subjects and images of American consumerism, media and foreign policy.
Media
Schedule
from May 08, 2010 to June 26, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-05-08 from 18:00 to 20:00