Recently I went by
308@156 Project Artspace to see the exhibition “Be Here Now,” featuring the
work of six artists, Joan Grubin, Marietta Hoferer, Michael Kukla, David X
Levine, Ilene Sunshine, and Susan York. All of the artists live and work in New
York with the exception of Susan York who is based in New Mexico.
The show simultaneously gives
the directive to remain in the moment with its title, while also proposing how
the concept “Be Here Now” could be realized visually by the artwork itself. As
a viewer, this creates a playful oscillation between trying to be present with the
work and the awareness that will come from this, as well as imagining what
essential message each artwork is trying to communicate in the “now,” doubling
the temporal imperative.
Most of the work in the
show can be seen together in the larger space, with plenty of room between
objects. The only piece in the smaller adjacent space is a site-specific
sculpture by Michael Kukla that melds to the architecture of the room in one
upper corner by the window. It is made of plaster and other materials with an
armature beneath it. It reads as an organic form undulating out of the ceiling
and corner, and back into the wall about midway down. This produces the
immediate effect of suddenly finding oneself inside a living organism, where a
large vein or organ protrudes in its function, and the architecture of the
building is a skeleton. The sculpture is similar to the color of the walls, and
the traces of armature beneath the surface, as well as the bluish and violet
hues that emerge where the plaster has been sanded down, re-enforce this
sensation. Kukla also has an unassuming sculpture of two carved and hollowed
out donuts of marble in the main room.
 |
| Sculpture by Michael Kukla |
In the main room, the
bright, wall-sized colored pencil drawing by David X Levine beckons with its
intensity, size, and its mandala-like pattern of circles within concentric
circles. The colors are mostly vivid, primary and secondary hues at full
intensity. The substrate of this massive drawing has been so worked-over with the
pencil’s pigment that it has a uniformly waxy, satiny sheen, and upon close
inspection the reflected light on its surface reveals the obsessively
repetitious allover mark-making it took to cover the paper so completely. In
two of the outer circles, a pattern is established and then interrupted. In
both cases, a ring of circles is broken by one “missing” circle, leaving a gap
of background color. This is appealing in reference to the theme of the show,
suggesting that even in being here now, there are inevitable interruptions,
both in the making of an artwork and in viewing it, acknowledging the desire to
strive for perfection while letting it fall apart a bit to let it be what it is.
 |
| By David X Levine |
 |
| David X Levine drawing detail |
Joan Grubin’s sculptural
wall-to-floor piece also draws one’s attention with a row of about 20, off-white,
four feet tall, sharp-angled triangular pieces of foam core leaning along the
entire length of one wall of the gallery. The tops of the triangles have been
squared off and rest against the wall, while the bases of each are a few inches
out from the wall. This creates an angled gap between the pieces of foam core
and the wall. The wall-facing side of each piece is painted with fluorescent
orange paint that reflects against the wall creating a hot glow (the palette
compliments Levine’s drawing nearby). When seeing the piece head on it looks precise and austere, but upon
looking along its length, the bases of each piece in the row are staggered, and this back and
forth stepping produces a rhythm and slight dissonance that adds an appealing
character to the work. Grubin also has a second piece in the show, a playful
obtuse pyramid sitting on one shelf that is part of a unit, neatly fit into a
triangular nook flush with the wall, just before the entrance to the gallery.
The shelf is just above eye level, and the surface has been covered with
fluorescent green paper that casts its eerie reflection up onto and around the
pyramid that is sitting on it. The pyramid has also been painted with a stripe
of green, yellow, and peach, and the overall effect bares a likeness to what a
miniature Robert Irwin might look like.
 |
| Sculpture by Joan Grubin |
 |
| Sculpture by Joan Grubin |
There are two
works by Marietta Hoferer in the show, wall-mounted drawings made with cut pieces
of strapping tape, adhered to paper and following meticulous, grid-based
geometric patterning. In the larger drawing, the organization and expression
changes segment by segment, and an immediate reference is to the singular
formations of snowflakes: light weight, ephemeral, and freezing and melting in
and out of existence. The small bits and pieces of square and rectangular tape,
with the thin, white, shimmery threads contained within each piece, sitting on
the surface of the paper, seem to float in space when the light catches them
just so. Some of the pieces of tape could be as small as an eighth of an inch
square, covering a surface of 58” x 58,” and the patience, precision, and an
ability for accuracy on an intensely repeating project baffles the senses. In
relation to the theme of the show, what could be an unbelievably tedious task
becomes a chore made light in its meditative belief that the persistence of
process, moment by moment, will yield something evocative and beautiful.
 |
| Drawing by Marietta Hoferer |
Ilene Sunshine’s
piece makes this show truly garden-like, consisting of four strands of sections
of delicately cut branches, each segment 3” to 4” long, threaded together so
that the pieces retain their vertical alignment with each other from floor to
ceiling, outlining a conceptual pillar of space that is further defined by the
finish work at floor-level: four pieces of base molding form a solid point of
grounding for this column of air. There is an arboreal feel to room with this
suspended, dotted line drawing of twigs. The strands of pieces of branches
remain consistent in girth and length, and the directionality of the pieces
play with a sense of orientation—the smaller twigs emerging from the pieces
arbitrarily point up or down, further suggesting an idea about trees, and not the
representation of trees. This piece can’t help but speak to scarcity in using
traditional building materials to suggest an architectural form, outlining
something that isn’t really there.
 |
| Sculpture by Ilene Sunshine |
 |
| Detail of sculpture by Ilene Sunshine |
Upon my first
walk through of the space, I wouldn’t have noticed Susan York’s contribution to
the show, a camouflaged wall-mounted sculpture. Placed on the back wall, in
between two windows and tucked up against a step in the wall is
what looks like a small black box. The framing of the windows is almost the
same color, which adds to the initial confusion as to whether this object is
there to somehow aid the fenestration. But the list of artworks reveals this
unrecognizable object to be a sculpture of solid graphite. Looking for marks on
the wall around the piece, I found myself hoping for some trace of the
graphite’s mark, but I found none, doubling the “mysterious black box” effect.
 |
| Sculpture by Susan York |
“Be Here Now” puts forth an admirable mantra,
while also making allowances and offering diversions from any totalizing agenda.
This show creates an environment akin to a meditation garden in a white box.
There are opportunities for direct visual contact with the materials and
surfaces of the objects in the show, for instance, even though there are
several works on or made of paper, nothing in the show is behind glass. In
several works, there is a precariousness or vulnerability that comes from
integrating the geometric and the organic.
It’s a well-balanced show with an interesting
range of works that flip material expectations: architecture made from paper,
donuts of marble, wood as gesture instead of a solid building material. Some of
the least assuming pieces in the show are made from the most expensive
materials, while many of the works that really want to be seen are made with everyday objects and non-precious
materials: tape, twigs, foam core, paper.
After seeing the show, I found the following
in the exhibition brochure: “Borrowing its title from the 1971 book Remember:
Be Here Now by Ram Dass, the influential psychologist and spiritual
teacher, this exhibition is an affirmation of his advocacy for quietude and
inner focus. Over forty years after the publication of his seminal handbook,
when experience is increasingly mediated through screens, Be Here Now is
an invitation to slow down and truly inhabit one’s body—a reminder that
although digital technology is a vital tool, it’s no substitute for actually
being there.”
I expected to find a reference to Ram Dass,
and his book that had such a profound effect on the Hippie movement, as well as
other spiritual movements that followed, but a reference to the digital was
unexpected. When viewing art, there is absolutely no substitute for being
there, but then the question is, what do you do once you are there, in front of
the artwork, “being here now” in its presence? Digital media is one more level
of mediation against being in the bodily now, but this show offered something
besides a digital-free environment. It offered a directive that echoed
throughout the exhibition: to keeping paying attention, and to find out just
what it means to you to “Be Here Now” with each artwork in the show.
The exhibition took place from November 20, 2014 to
January 9, 2015.
308@156 Project Artspace is located at 156
Fifth Avenue in the French Gothic Presbyterian Building, adjacent to the law
offices of Lee Anav Chung White & Kim LLP.
