Yvonne Lammerich titles her spring exhibition at Diaz Contemporary “Belief,” but as the lettering on the invitation indicates—the title is printed right side up and then upside down—belief is changeable, a result of the complex coming-together of social and political factors at any given time. Belief can be stood on its head.
On entering the exhibition we see (Wave) Multiple Time Space Zones—Emotive State, a sprawling wall work composed of graphite lines and populated with numerous triangular segments of polystyrene board covered with a dense impasto of black paint. These have been carefully positioned in the spaces between the graphite lines, which form a complex, grid-like network that recedes into the represented space. To the left is a tall floor piece, Column, made up of similar triangular pieces stacked on a steel pole. This act repositioning creates a dynamic spatial dialogue. Column, whose height matches that of the artist, mirrors the viewer’s body. It is as if Column acts as a stand-in for us, bridging the gap between real and represented space.
If we carry this observation to the six diamond-shaped target paintings that occupy the rest of the room, we can begin to unravel their meaning. One is tempted to view them in relation to Noland’s colour-field paintings, Stella’s shaped canvases and Johns’s encaustic targets but, as we approach, we can see traces of the artist’s hand and wavering gestures that attest to thick paint having been applied in dizzying circular motions. Stepping back, we remain caught in that motion—targeted. The viewer’s body mimics the relationship between the real space of the gallery and the kinetic virtual space of the paintings.
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Yvonne Lammerich “Belief” 2008 Installation view |
In the smaller back room are two large wall/floor works, Belief #1 and #2. Both are made from translucent ribbed plastic sheeting. Cut from this flat material are a table and two chairs, their shapes left as negative outlined spaces on the wall, but then reconstructed as three-dimensional objects on the floor in a typical domestic arrangement. Re(a)d, on the far wall, continues with this idea; a chair emerges in stages, with a wall-drawn representation becoming a functional three-dimensional object. Sitting on the chair, the viewer gazes across the room. High up in the far corner a painted black silhouette gives us a distant view of historic buildings. We are transported out through the window to a world beyond us in space and time.
“Belief,” then, is about space and different conventions of representing it. How we choose to create this illusion, which straddles the real and the virtual, and how we position our own bodies within this negotiated space are telling indications of our understanding of the present.
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Yvonne Lammerich Re(a)d 2008 |
