Juan Fernando Herrán’s stair structures meander, stop abruptly, and multiply with an obfuscated internal logic. In his latest exhibition, clues to their idiosyncratic construction are seen in photographs that document various public staircases and ladders found on the outskirts of Medellín, Columbia. The stairs in these barrios are adaptively built for their environments, focused more on “making it work” than on being efficiently designed. Itinerarios (No. 1) (Itineraries [No.1]) and Itinerarios (No. 2), both 2008, depict stairs constructed directly into rolling grassy hillsides. Bifurcación (Bifurcation), 2008, shows an uneven flight of steps that dramatically splits as it approaches a graffiti-covered wall.
These barrios make up for their lack of proper building resources with surprising ingenuity. It is from this spirit that Herrán’s sculptures take their cue. Espina dorsal sección 2 (Spine Section 2), 2009–10, is a staircase that begins on the gallery’s ground floor and extends to the ceiling of the two-story building. The stairs zigzag arbitrarily around the space, at one point appearing to spontaneously wrap around one of the building’s structural columns. Other works have spur-of-the-moment decisions built into the forms. In Espina dorsal sección 1, 2009–10, smaller, narrower steps protrude from the base, tacked on as if someone had decided, as an afterthought, that the stairs needed to go up and down.
Despite being made from warped, reclaimed wood, the works give the impression that they have enough integrity to withstand some climbing. Any allusion to function, however, is strictly symbolic, as actual use remains an unlikely proposition. The expansive white space of this gallery’s standard cubic gallery only serves to articulate these sculptures’ idiosyncratic assemblage. Herrán’s staircases thus read like monuments, strangely reminiscent of Tatlin’s tower, but in praise of eccentric construction, free from archetypal design.
