PS1, Jan 31 2009

Leandro Erlich: Swimming Poor

这个作品对美术馆现有空间的利用非常好，美术馆的建筑构造提供了观看作品的最佳次序。Leandro生于一个建筑世家，从小对空间及公寓结构十分敏感。他认为建筑空间在其实用功能，审美，和身份象征之外还隐含着一个情感和感知的层面。作为人们日常经验的载体和语境，日常空间成为了生活的舞台，提供与环境对话和互动的可能。这些日常建筑空间定义了我们自身，它成为我们存在的外壳，见证了我们的际遇。在他的作品中，建筑本身的实用功能被削减或转换，空间随之变成了一种诗性的虚构，隐喻和象征无处不在。同时它提出的问题是美术馆本身在为作品提供展示空间之外，它的空间是否还能成为构成作品的因素或成为作品过程的一部分。美术馆自身如何提供给观者一个思维转换的可能。

Alan Saret: Brick Wall and Sun

Alan在美术馆三楼东侧的走廊尽头，他在美术馆的砖墙上凿了一个直径两厘米左右的洞，早晨阳光从东面照进来时透过洞口沿走廊形成一条移动的光线。作品的即时性，不定性，以及物质和自然空间的关系是他长期关注的问题。很有趣的是策展人将她的作品设在美术馆东侧，只在早晨一段时间可以看到作品的全貌，而同一层楼JamesTurrell的作品Meeting每天只在日落的极短时间里对公众开放，由于每天日落的时间一直在变，允许参观的时间也因时而变。两个作品的呼应非常好。

“The flexure of each material draws a line in space which corresponds identically to its physical properties. Nature, therefore, draws the final line in the art.”——Alan Saret

Olafur Eliasson: Take Your Time

Olafur的作品必须整个人平躺在展厅里才能体会他想要提供的空间经验。虽然作品看起来很简单，但效果很好。我个人的感受是从来没有在这样的空间里存在过，以这样的角度和距离对视自己。这个展厅很大，所以能出效果，估计小的空间不行。

James Turrell: Meeting

很强大，天花板被打空了，这作品每天日落的时候才开放，可以围坐在打了橙色灯的正方形空间里凝视被割出来的一方天空，不知道是天空在落日时分变得极蓝还是因为色彩对比的缘故，总之无敌巨暴狂美。没啥好说的，James绝对一诗人啊！

Børre SæthreStealth：Distortion (...must have seen it in some teenage wet dream)

玻璃橱窗里面是独角兽标本，乍一看以为又是一个Damien Hirst. 但是从橱窗前走过的时候非常震撼，不知道这玻璃什么材质的，总之从右到左走过去，那棺子里的独角兽时隐时现，并发出迷离的七彩光芒，跟梦境一样，惊艳得我目瞪口呆。这个作品像是窥视到一个住着传说动物的异质世界，据PS1页子上的解释，说他故意打断了完整视野的舞台氛围，造成一种类似窥阴癖的观看，时间性在他的作品空间里被搅乱冻结，他的神话动物标本在远古和未来之间造成冲突。我看时的感受是一种超现实的时空分离。

Amalia Mesa-Bains: The Curandera's Botanica

这一件是整个NeoHooDoo主题展中我特别喜欢的一件作品, 屋里铺了一地薰衣草，气味很重，一进房间觉得像进了吉卜赛人的占卜铺子。台子上乱七八糟堆了造型奇怪的玻璃实验器皿，蜂鸟的尸体标本，古怪的植物学研究笔记，木雕的骷髅，晒干的植物，泥土等等。左边的书架从下至上每一层密密麻麻拍着各种个人物品，隐喻着从出生到死亡轮回间丰盛的记忆，但同时也透着神秘和凄凉。

José Bedia
Las Cosas que me Arrastran (The Things That Drag Me Along)

和美洲奴役史有关。船上装着象牙，狐狸标本，雪茄，麻织物，牛仔帽等等

Radcliffe Bailey：Storm at Sea

上面这三个作品是NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith主题展的一部分，“NeoHooDoo”隐含着一种宗教性，仪式性，和对自由精神的信仰。这个潮流始于十九世纪的文学和艺术创作，主要存在于美洲及原住民群岛。这个展览有很强的美洲土著文化意味和神秘的仪式感。

Leandro's work is exhibited in the first floor of PS1, just close to the main entrance, thus, it turns to be one of the most eye catching works in the museum. It seems as the Duplex gallery is just built for the work, or, the idea of the work is born according to the physical space of the gallery. As Leandro himself explained, the space is perfectly created a correct viewing order for his work. Undeniably, this work bend the boundaries of space with architectural installations that are, in one way or another, incomplete, unexpected, impossible, or disorienting.[1] Not only Leandro’s work, many other works exhibited in PS1 this season represent reflection of the architecture’s limitation and intend to break the normal spatial concept and perception. (Such works as Alan Saret’s Brick Wall and Sun, James Turrell’s Meeting, and Olafur Eliasson’s Take Your Time.) I think Leandro’s own statement is really important for understanding his work.

LE: I was born into a family of architects, and early on I found myself wondering about spaces, construction sites, apartments, and houses. I found that these spaces were able to hold information not just related to functionality, aesthetics, or social status, but also to a hidden layer of emotions and perceptions. I am interested in architecture as the background of our daily experiences: an emotional architecture. I think of ordinary spaces as the stage for a play. The play is, of course, our lives: we are continually interacting and in dialogue with our habitat. It defines us; it is the envelope of our existence and has a major role in the way things happen for us.

In my installations, the functional aspect of architecture either no longer exists or has been altered completely. Daily spaces—the architecture we take for granted—are very often where my work starts. The spaces I create become a poetic fiction for the viewer. Symbols and metaphors are hidden in doors, cabinets, living rooms, mirrored rooms, or inside a swimming pool.

So, it is not really the surreal but the “real” that interests me. The “very real”: the ordinary and the way that our notion of reality is conceived. There is no better place to question reality than in the ordinary.

The work itself also raises the cliché of museum’s role in contemporary art. What is museum capable of when it involves in the producing process as well as the representation of the art? Except as a functional architecture, can it experiment to be an environment which shifts the viewer's perception and experience of place and self?

I felt the curator is really intelligent to put Alan and Olafur’s work in the same floor. Both of their works are non-static and affected by the natural elements. Alan’s Brick Wall and Sun is set on the eastside of the museum, only in the morning when sunlight faces the exterior side of the building, a focused stream light shines down to the floor to make the sculpture on view. Oppositely, Olafur’s Meeting can only been viewed at the moment of sunset. But they parallel in the way of finding a time-driving space in nature, and creatively using the museum architecture.

[1] Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool: Immersed in Reverse conversation between Alanna Heiss and Leandro Erlich