Matthew Lutz-Kinoy’s “Un cône nommé désir” (A Cone Named Desire) is an oblique echo of Anthony McCall’s well known luminous cones, a recent iteration of which was just on view at Martine Aboucaya. If one places these exhibitions within the same frame of reference, one can see that the artists take very different approaches. McCall makes the cone-as-geometric-figure tangible, presenting it optically. Lutz-Kinoy, on the other hand, presents the cone as an object (from the Greek kônos, pine cone); in the gallery it serves as a tepee of sorts, constructed from fabric stretched over a cardboard frame and surrounded by smaller, cardboard-only cones. This object occupies the central position in the exhibition; on its left, video documentation of a performance shows the artist, dressed in a skin-tight white unitard festooned with green diamond shapes (mirroring those on the sculpture nearby), dancing to old R&B hits. This incantatory movement enhances the enigmatic character of the sculpture, turning the artist into a supplicant engaged in a ritualized affirmation of this strange object.
