Robert de Saint Phalle "Curtain Call"
DODGEgallery
This event has ended.
Contradictions, role-reversals, and de-stabilized expectations script Saint Phalle’s work. Despite unsteady appearances each part is essential to the integrity of the object whether conceptual, functional or aesthetic. Nothing is extraneous. Even with such rigorous economy of form, his work is poetic, abstract, and shifting.
Saint Phalle writes, “What concerns me as an artist is the space between what a thing seems to be and what it is.” A rusted barrel or a leaning sheet of glass assumes a precariousness, suggesting a frozen moment of collapse. But the element that seems most tenuous is the very thing that the artist uses to achieve balance. The play of form and function is often upturned: what seems functional is aesthetic, and what seems purely visual is what holds the piece together. In Chameleon a utilitarian steel frame becomes ornamental and an embellished painted surface becomes the operative support. His objects are vulnerable and uncertain; they are also striking declarative statements.
[Image: Robert de Saint Phalle 2010 Dress Rehearsal, Black-painted glass, powder coated steel, modified ICA bench, projected film still painted on fabric, 8 x 8 x 8 ft.]
Media
Schedule
from February 19, 2011 to March 27, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-02-19 from 18:00 to 20:00