A sculpture exhibition just opened at Margaret Thatcher Projects by the artists, Venske and Spanle, a German couple that splits their time between Brooklyn and Munich. I have been looking at their work for a number of years now and I can't tell you how much I love it!! I never get tired of looking at their works which are primarily sculpted from white Lasa marble. Their earlier sculptures consisted of shorter, squatter, organic or anthropomorphic free-standing forms that could be taken as abstract but also look look both alien or primordial. They also created wall hanging sculptures that looked like large masses of dripping viscous liquid - also made exclusively of Lasa marble.
Now in this exhibition, the larger works, although free-standing, seem to have grown - stretched and elongated (some ten feet tall in the first image shown) - and are interacting with one another and taking on emotions, such as surprise, wonder and fear. They seem to communicate although there are no eyes, ears, limbs...are these phallic-shaped forms underwater creatures? outerspace beings? We won't ever know and we are naturally drawn to their mystery.
These works are amazing for a few reasons. I am astounded how the artists really go to the extremes with the medium that they use. They are using a very ancient technique - carving marble - for a very contemporary purpose. They use cold stone that has, for the majority of the surface, been buffed to a high gloss, however, these forms look living and breathing - they look alive and have a lot of movement. In person, you can marvel at every bump, undulation and fold in the skin of the form and think about the painstaking effort it took to achieve this from one solid piece of marble.
Furthermore, these works are by no means serious or didactic. They are completely fun and humorous!! I think sometimes contemporary art can take itself too seriously and we forget silliness has a magnetic effect. Given its three-dimensionality, its important that we want to sneak around the objects and interact with them as they do with each other and walk away from the experience with a smile on our face. I love in this show as the artists did for the last show, but not to such a great extent, place everyday objects in and around the sculptures. This "pop" element makes these marble creatures even more playful as they flow out of used coffee cups and yogurt containers, seem to drink beer and gorge themselves on sugar, toffees and chocolate candies. (There is also a fun, but not very successful, animation of the small sculptures in a mini fridge in the back room of the gallery and when you open the real mini fridge adjacent to the flat screen, there is a little surprise in store for you.) I took my children and they instantly were in on the joke.
One of my favorite pieces is a larger work that seems to be suctioning or pushing a large copper-toned family of stones. The organic, smooth marble, juxtaposed to the rough, raw-edged cubes of mica stone is beautiful. This multi-pieced work sets up a funny narrative. But its also meaningful in its materiality.
The artists have installed an enormous and picturesque photographic mural as the backdrop to these wonderful marble sculptures, completely changing the "white cube" into the mountainous horizon of the region of Italy where Lasa marble they use is exclusively mined. Additionally, when the marble is mined, it is dug out from between layers of mica, the same stone that is found in this particular sculpture. Its interesting to think about the act of mining - the violent peeling back of layers of mica to reach the exquisite marble below - and look at the marble sculpture before us trying desperately to move that mica stone whichever way it can.
(Across the room, the one hanging sculpture included in this show is clinging to an old postcard from the Alto Adige - the same region that this marble is mined from.)
What I also find amazing, is the collaboration by two artists. I love that there has been a trend over the last decade for more artists to collaborate on artworks, installations and other projects. I find that artists especially, who seem to have such strong, creative convictions and passionate, singular visions, can meld their ideas and produce something together that is new, coherent, meaningful and beautiful.
Enjoy!!
I love these!
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