Lesley Dill “Sculpture 1994

Lesley Dill “Sculpture 1994 - 2018”

Nohra Haime Gallery

[Image: Lesley Dill "Word Through" 1998, aluminum, oil paint, silk ribbon and salt, 60 x 19 x 11 in.]

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Sculpture: 1994-2018, Lesley Dill’s second solo show with Nohra Haime Gallery, will be on view from January 18 - March 2, 2019. This survey of 18 works captures how Dill uses the power of written language to create art with a profusion of textures, forms and materials. In a NY Times review, Benjamin Genocchio has written: “Her art evokes an imaginative and emotional space, deftly balancing sure, concrete reference points with whimsical intimations of some other, larger, escapist universe.”[1]

Dills’ materials in these works are many, including wood, bronze, fabric, copper, glass, horsehair, paper, feathers and thread. But the common ground drawing together her disparate images and materials is the written word: poetic texts entwined with image have long been the consistent and unique region of Dill’s explorations. What began decades ago with a deep dive into the poetic text of Emily Dickinson has since expanded into a handful of other literary sources, including the poets Tom Sleigh and Salvador Espriu, and the writers Franz Kafka and Nathanial Hawthorne. In an essay on Dill’s work, curator Nandini Makrandi has written, “Dill describes herself as a collector of language, calling it the ‘pivot point’ of all her work. As the artist has moved through different series in different years, language has remained the constant, used to capture what she describes as the enormity of the inner self.”[ii]

“Ms. Dill’s sculptures are less visual objects for detached aesthetic contemplation”, Benjamin Genocchio wrote in the NY Times, “than knotty philosophical puzzles that use sculpture as a launching pad.”

Word Through, a freestanding metal sculpture, is gently pierced by a ribbon of words hand stamped with the words of Franz Kafka:
I am a hesitation before birth
My life is a hesitation before birth

The words appear on a figure with a delicate body and large clenched hands. The visual tension acts as a metaphor of the often conflicting moment of doubt and anticipation before committing to an idea. The clenched, hard surface of the body highly contrasts to the loosely strewn ribbons of text.

WOMAN IN DRESS WITH STAR, 2011, bronze with light blue-white patina, 52 x 52 x 61in.
[1]Genocchio, Benjamin. “Mixed (Media) Messages,” The New York Times, May 20, 2007, illustrated.
[ii]Makrandi Jestice, Nandini. “Vision, Touch, Voice.” I Heard A Voice: The Art of Lesley Dill. Hunter Museum of American Art, 2009, exhibition catalogue.