NYAB Event - Beth Lipman "De Rigueur"

Beth Lipman "De Rigueur"

Heller Gallery

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Heller Gallery presents an exhibition of new work by Beth Lipman titled de Rigueur.

Two major installations will be the focus of the exhibition - the towering Bride and a pair of Whatnots, Victorian-inspired corner units. In both works Lipman takes new ownership of the still-life genre combining social commentary with a personal narrative.

In the Bride Lipman presents the wedding as a fulcrum in a woman’s life in which the exquisite emblematically collides with the quotidian. The piece is a 10-ft. tall 5-tier dessert stand filled with glass objects. The top tier is set with an orderly crown of candles, which gives way to a tier of stemware. The third layer contains a fuller arrangement of cups and bowls and below them is an opulent laid table-like installation. The lowest layer explodes with an overwhelming assemblage of all the parts from tiers above. The Bride goes from order to chaos or chaos to order depending on which direction your eye travels – top to bottom or bottom to top. Lipman uses the height and stratification of the piece to prevent us from seeing it in its entirety and therefore from actually or visually possessing it. In doing so she reexamines her questions about the complex relationships between satisfaction, knowledge, ownership, and the human desire to possess.

The Whatnots take their name from a piece of furniture popular in England in the 19th century, designed to contain various collectibles. Lipman’s version consists of two wooden multi-shelf corner units, which hold a collection of souvenirs from her own life remade in black glass, a material synonymous with Victorian mourning jewelry. Understanding the intimate connection between the souvenirs – many of them gifts to the artist from other artists – makes the pieces autobiographical. Taken out of context they demonstrate the banality of our object-obsessed lifestyles.