Since the early ’80s, Dina Ghen has been producing abstract sculpture rich in metaphorical possibilities. She has developed methods for carving and casting materials such as urethane, epoxy, and resins that enable her to extract from them an amazingly diverse range of formal properties, as well as vast expressive potential. In this exhibition, Ghen showed herself capable of producing serious, elevated sculpture using nontraditional materials, particularly industrial plastics. Her work demonstrates not only the intrinsic beauty of these synthetic substances, but the capacity they have to transcend the material dimension.
Ghen gives concrete description to abstract qualities. In Rensuaz, 1988, the work’s short, compact body seems firmly balanced on the ground. A blackened indentation at the head of the piece seems like a bodily opening or wound, and the curving form and solid structure almost define bodiliness. A palpable tension runs through the work. Rensuaz is marked by presence, bringing to mind associations with the subject of containers, from sacks and vessels to human torsos. It tends to grow in the viewer’s imagination, acquiring additional symbolic value along the way.
Kraina, 1988–89, is a tall, narrowing structure that brings to mind a figure wrapped in a cloak, walking silently into the surrounding space. This sculpture, with its reflective plastic surfaces filtering the light to various degrees, also recalls the wailing wall of memories, where time is creatively reconstituted. It seems to speak of hope and remorse. Throughout her work, Ghen explores an unseen universe of feeling and time, which abstract sculpture has an uncanny way of rendering within our grasp.
—Ronny Cohen
