I’ve always felt that the tower room at the Clocktower has a ritualistic, almost sacrosanct feeling. Because of this, it was the perfect setting for Leandro Katz’s “Lunar Alphabet Series.” The show consisted primarily of two 100-by 90-inch panels, each of which included 72 black-and-white photographs arranged in a grid format, and one 60-by 5-foot roll of black paper covered with line drawings in white oil pastel. The subject matter of both the photographs and the drawings was the same: the face of the moon during the various phases of its monthly cycle.
At first glance, the pictures seemed to be arranged within the grid arbitrarily. Following no chronological or linear order, the various moon phases were juxtaposed to create graphic, nearly abstract design. The drawings on the roll of black paper formed a similar design, and seemed to unwind like calligraphy on a scroll. Draped from the ceiling and dipping to the floor, this banner swayed with the wind in the Tower, its curves echoing the curves of the silver staircase that spirals up from the gallery. The delicate beauty of the objects, together with Katz’s use of the space, gave the piece an aura which further enhanced the mysterious and mutable presence of the moon.
One additional object in the show—a narrow photographic panel hung high on a side wall, depicted the 26 lunar phases—from the first visible crescent to the last—in linear sequence. Each of the individual images was juxtaposed to a corresponding letter of the alphabet. The inclusion of the “key” made it clear that these objects were coded messages, based on a linguistic system of order, and had meaning beyond the visual.
This information changed the experience of the installation: the spectator was being asked to read the piece, and simply to see it. Photographs and drawings became characters in a foreign language which had familiar symbols. The spectator/reader was forced to ignore his or her visceral or emotional responses to the moon, and to ascribe specific, “meaning” to the pictures.
Ultimately Katz’s work, bridging art and language, underlines the fact that both systems simultaneously reveal and conceal.
—Shelley Rice
