Arlene Shechet : THE BOX

9 Sep-15 Oct 2016

Overview

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery is pleased to present a new work made espeically for The Box by American artist, Arlene Shechet. This is the first time her work has been shown in London. Fluctuating between the biological and the architectural, Shechet’s dynamic sculptures defy easy categorisation by confounding notions of materiality. Shechet's presentation in The  Box coincides with her solo exhibition at The Frick Collection, New York. 

Discussing the work, Shechet explains: 'This work reflects the fragile times we live in. Though we anticipate physical failure when we first set eyes on it, its disparate elements actually hold it together. It is like a weaving, each part dependent on the other, the balanced whole teetering, threatening collapse but…still standing. Porcelain grids have been violated and abused, pressed to the breaking point, but they persist visually and structurally. As Rosalind Krauss has written, “The grid's mythic power is that it makes us able to think we are dealing with materialism (or sometimes science, or logic) while at the same   time it provides us with a release into belief.” Both logic and belief are sorely challenged in these uncertain days but Still Standing is an echo of my optimism.'