| Description: | Reflections, by their very nature, are metaphorical - the image of one thing transferred to another different from, but analogous to its source. A reflective surface, a mirror, say, exists simultaneously as the thing it reflects and as an object in its own right. Using mirrors, David Altmejd has made reflections central to his work for a decade or more, at first incorporating them as Modernist forms in miniature, like shrunken Robert Morrises that punctured fantastical, multi-platformed worlds, and most recently as a structural core.
For his installation at the 2007 Venice Biennale the artist covered large sections of the inside of the predominantly glass-constructed Canadian pavilion in mirrored glass. Inside, The Giant 2 and The Index (both 2007) were thus positioned within an environment that existed in a permanent state of flux, subsuming and responding to each and all that encountered them.
Collectively, the Venice works, a sprawling concoction of half-men half beasts, sculpted and taxidermied birds, artificial fauna, caves and alcoves of pleasure and horror alongside an outsized and fractured form of a seated giant, were a theatrical world of Gothic and decadent imagination. The sculptures were themselves largely constructed with mirrors, further enhancing their frame of reference. Yet, and crucially, one should consider all of the component parts of Altmejd's formations in the same metaphorical vein, for although collectively they embody and construct a microcosmic world, they refer to much that is extraneous to them, laden with what he calls "symbolic potential".
Caught within a system of duality, Altmejd's methodically selected materials, reflective and otherwise, constantly shift between actual and illusory, fragmented and whole, present and absent, objective and subjective. For MADE UP the artist continues his long-standing preoccupation with myth, folklore and science fiction in The Holes -two vast giants that transform gallery into lair. Architectural, fragmented, violent, decorative, anthropomorphic and yet periodically dissolving into abstraction, they are cohesive forms rooted somewhere within popular imagination, yet representing so much more. The body of one is severed at the waist, its trailing innards spiralling into an abyss suggested in the title. Amidst the carnage, in contrast, life (and even after-life) bursts through in the form of plants, a mirrored stairway and mirrored quartz-like clusters that grow towards the sky.
Highly detailed, the bodies of the giants become multiple stage sets with meta-narratives running throughout. In a sense, the entire structure functions as a mirror, reflecting bold, universal constructs and preoccupations - order, chaos, birth, death, destruction, life and renewal, love, horror, battle and rest. Altmejd seeks to present a scene that is at once plausible and fantastical, creating exuberant worlds that stretch the imagination yet are somehow weirdly recognisable through legends from a remote past. Just as Gabriel Garcia Marquez creates a situation whereby a magic carpet flying past the living room window becomes merely another piece of street traffic, Altmejd offsets the bizarre with the comfortably familiar In reflective rhythms that remain darkly suggestive. LS
[MORE][LESS]Reflections, by their very nature, are metaphorical - the image of one thing transferred to another different from, but analogous to its source. A reflective surface, a mirror, say, exists simultaneously as the thing it reflects and as an object in its own right. Using mirrors, David Altmejd has made reflections central to his work for a decade or more, at first incorporating them as Modernist forms in miniature, like shrunken Robert Morrises that punctured fantastical, multi-platformed worlds, and most recently as a structural core.
For his installation at the 2007 Venice Biennale the artist covered large sections of the inside of the predominantly glass-constructed Canadian pavilion in mirrored glass. Inside, The Giant 2 and The Index (both 2007) were thus positioned within an environment that existed in a permanent state of flux, subsuming and responding to each and all that encountered them.
Collectively, the Venice works, a sprawling concoction of half-men half beasts, sculpted and taxidermied birds, artificial fauna, caves and alcoves of pleasure and horror alongside an outsized and fractured form of a seated giant, were a theatrical world of Gothic and decadent imagination. The sculptures were themselves largely constructed with mirrors, further enhancing their frame of reference. Yet, and crucially, one should consider all of the component parts of Altmejd's formations in the same metaphorical vein, for although collectively they embody and construct a microcosmic world, they refer to much that is extraneous to them, laden with what he calls "symbolic potential".
Caught within a system of duality, Altmejd's methodically selected materials, reflective and otherwise, constantly shift between actual and illusory, fragmented and whole, present and absent, objective and subjective. For MADE UP the artist continues his long-standing preoccupation with myth, folklore and science fiction in The Holes -two vast giants that transform gallery into lair. Architectural, fragmented, violent, decorative, anthropomorphic and yet periodically dissolving into abstraction, they are cohesive forms rooted somewhere within popular imagination, yet representing so much more. The body of one is severed at the waist, its trailing innards spiralling into an abyss suggested in the title. Amidst the carnage, in contrast, life (and even after-life) bursts through in the form of plants, a mirrored stairway and mirrored quartz-like clusters that grow towards the sky.
Highly detailed, the bodies of the giants become multiple stage sets with meta-narratives running throughout. In a sense, the entire structure functions as a mirror, reflecting bold, universal constructs and preoccupations - order, chaos, birth, death, destruction, life and renewal, love, horror, battle and rest. Altmejd seeks to present a scene that is at once plausible and fantastical, creating exuberant worlds that stretch the imagination yet are somehow weirdly recognisable through legends from a remote past. Just as Gabriel Garcia Marquez creates a situation whereby a magic carpet flying past the living room window becomes merely another piece of street traffic, Altmejd offsets the bizarre with the comfortably familiar In reflective rhythms that remain darkly suggestive. LS
|
