NYAB Event - Nicolas Fleming “Time Would Not Diminish Their Strength But Add Wisdom To It”

Nicolas Fleming “Time Would Not Diminish Their Strength But Add Wisdom To It”

Ise Cultural Foundation Gallery

This event has ended.

Using the four columns of the venue as a departure point, Fleming builds walls on the perimeter formed by the four pillars, resulting in a rectangular enclosure with rounded corners. Light emerges from the top of the construction, made of varnished drywall and colored plaster. While concealing the columns, this minimalistic temple emphasizes the textured ceiling. The massive cylindrical shapes, surmounted by the still-visible molded capitals, symbolically imply stability, power, architecture, and history. In this dark space where the only light source originates from the drywall temple, the large structure induces a somewhat cosmic flavour, shifting the immaterial sacred to the dense isolating foam substance on the ceiling. The object itself forces a contemplative relationship with visitors, and also highlights the distinctive features of the exhibition space.

In the entrance vitrine, the flawed column made by Fleming, using Styrofoam, polyurethane, plaster and found objects, acts as a narrative bond, which brings a sequential aspect to the work, pointing out that which has been veiled in the main space.The passage from the entrance to the gallery space also underlines the literary title of the piece: Time Would Not Diminish Their Strength But Add Wisdom To It suggesting a transfer of power and force from the four columns to the artist’s construction, reminiscent of the architectural role of the pillars as structural elements. The artist shifts the columns’ familiar purpose as symbolic and physical indicator in the gallery, therefore changing the logic inherent to the physical space, and its perception by visitors.