print October 1996

Judith Barry

“No one talks about those things beyond . . . beyond speech/those things beyond thinking and reason,/beyond writing and language.” These lines from a poem written by Judith Barry encapsulate her recent exhibition. In previous installations, Barry gave the spectator a pivotal role in determining the various parameters of the exhibition space. Whether Barry is investigating issues related to architecture, cinema, or gender politics, the most important element in her work is often space itself, which takes on both a visual and a verbal dimension: How, the work asks, does the viewer navigate

print Summer 1995

Marin Kasimir

Marin Kasimir’s most recent public sculpture, La Place des Miroirs (The place of mirrors, 1994), is at once a summation of much of his work of the past ten years and a bold new development, recontextualizing familiar elements. Commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture as a project to be situated outside the new Town Hall in Issoudun, it succeeds where many works of public sculpture fail as it is perfectly integrated into its surroundings through its choice of materials and its invitation to the public to experience it physically. It also, however, questions some basic assumptions about

print February 1995

Muntadas

In a darkened space, Muntadas’ newest installation, “ICI/MAINTENANT” (Here/now, 1994 ), forced its viewers into immediate, almost physical contact with a variety of elements. A group of ghostly covered objects, their forms and functions hidden, were scattered around the floor. An endlessly repeated sequence from a video of the Channel Tunnel after it had been excavated was projected against a wall, interspersed by a series of shots of lace-making machines. A number of slides, taken inside of Calais’ remaining lace factories, were projected throughout the space. Finally, there was the sound of

print February 1994

Mitja Tušek

Mitja Tušek’s paintings are based on the principles of addition and multiplication, in which the final image is clearly both the result and the effacement of all of its constituent parts. Using beeswax that has been tinted with different pigments, Tušek constructs these works as a series of layers, each one covering and extending the previous one. In some cases, there are up to fifty layers on the canvas, producing an image in which depth and flatness seem to exist in equal parts.

All of the paintings are stretched on wood and are shown without frames—an important point, since, examining the

print October 1993

Peter Greenaway

“I have been interested in a certain melodramatic curve of flight through the air for a long time. It is the trajectory of a thrown stone. It follows the hump of a humpbacked whale from nose to tail. It’s bounded like a smooth, sheep-cropped, grassy hill.” In his introduction to the catalogue for “Le bruit des nuages” (Flying out of this world), Peter Greenaway goes on to explain the way he approached this project, which consisted of choosing a number of works from the drawings collection of the Louvre and exhibiting them in a way that mirrored the trajectory of the thrown stone. Like his films,

print May 1993

Michelangelo Pistoletto

In 1961, two paintings by Michelangelo Pistoletto were entitled, Uomo di fronte—il presente (Man seen from the front—the present) and Uomo di schiena—il presente (Man seen from the back—the present). Both are self-portraits. In the former, the artist/subject is facing forward, toward the viewer/painter; in the latter, his back is turned to us. Both works are covered with a reflective, varnished surface, creating a field that seems to be in a state of flux. Description of the resultant images is difficult to fix. The works are, in effect, prototypes of mirrors. These two paintings, in which the

print January 1993

Hamish Fulton

The work of Hamish Fulton always brings to mind measurement and description. His series of walks over the past twenty years have been textually and photographically documented in order to translate a physical, personal activity into an event, an activity that reverberates beyond the present moment.

The oldest section of the Abbaye de Saint-Savin dates from the 9th century, although the site is particularly renowned for its extraordinary set of 11th-century murals, which trace a series of biblical events from the Creation to the Crucifixion. The Centre International d’Art Mural has undertaken a

print November 1992

“Jardin-Théâtre Bestiarium”

“Psychomachy tells the story of a garden called Bestiarium—a garden facing both past and future, shining down on us as a golden age—a garden with lakes reflecting the sky, paths leading to exits, and glimpses of grottoes, forests and thickets. The Bestiarium is like a moving mirror that helps us experience the beauty of the garden itself,” states Rüdiger Schöttle in an excerpt from the catalogue, “Theatergarden/Bestiarium.”

“Jardin-Théâtre/Bestiarium” (Theatergarden/bestiarium, 1989–92) conceived by Rüdiger Schöttle and involving the collaboration of 14 artists (Bernard Bazile, Glenn Branca,

print October 1992

Jef Geys

The first work that one saw on entering this exhibition was Bollen op wit schap (Balls on white shelves, 1963), which is exactly what its title describes. In its simplicity, its flexibility (the balls may be moved in any position and function as movable elements within a fixed frame of reference), and its matter-of-fact references to architecture, it was the perfect beginning for a consideration of Jef Geys’ activities of the past 30 years.

This and almost all of the other works in the exhibition were surrounded by hundreds of black and white photographs referring to various objects, performances,

print May 1992

Mark Luyten

In an essay published by the Douglas Hyde gallery in Dublin in 1985, Philippe-Andre Rihoux wrote, “To see the work of Mark Luyten is to explore the weavings and interactions of neutral planes, the interferences of literary and artistic categories. His work has its roots in literature, in a poetic substratum which provides both stability and stimulus for growth.” Over the past ten years, Luyten has consistently explored the area between categories like painting, photography, literature, landscape, and portraiture, and has fashioned a body of work that is intricately tied to the notion of this

print April 1992

Juan Muñoz

Both illusion and allusion—in terms of scale, color, composition, and tone—seem central to the work of Juan Muñoz. This exhibition, which featured sculptures, installations, and drawings from 1984 to 1991, found the artist combining a series of references, approaches, and styles that have characterized his work for the past decade. As such, each piece could be approached as a unique object and as an integral part of the whole of the exhibition. Passing from one room to another inevitably put each work into a changing yet complementary context.

Muñoz’s distinguishes between literature and story

print January 1992

Koen Theys

The gallery was divided into three parts: on the left, high on the wall, hung a window made out of rubber latex, its sides curving out. In the center was a large sheet of glass, framed in black metal, whose lower half featured an engraving of a balcony. On the right were four photographs of an enormous crowd of people, with geometric forms painted over each image. These were the elements which comprised Koen Theys’ most recent exhibition. At first glance, the window might have seemed a bit too Goberish, the glass a bit too precious in its stabs at architecture, the photographs too influenced by

Michael Tarantino