Paul Wallach makes his UK debut bringing together several new wall mounted installations in his
engaging and poetic contemporary style.
T R U T H T H A T explores the nature of the materials that Wallach uses to form his assemblages. Both meditative and proactive, his art helps us decode difficult questions while asking us to wrestle with complex and divisive ideologies. Wallach strips away the excesses of daily life and uses its detritus - string, brick, plaster, cloth, pencil - to formulate a new one.
In Truth That (2019), a board that has been painted over multiple times and finished with a clean geometric pattern floats in front of a lead cast of a piece of fossilised wood. Wallach frequently interrogates time, or the lack of it; the human exertion used to create the work can be seen as a measure of time which appears in contrast with the universality of nature.
Wallach delights in the multi-dimensionality of his pieces, using the interplay between wall- mounted works and sculpture to create unexpected effects. Whensoever (2019) teeters on the edge of suspension: a balancing act of blocks, brick and ball. Situated in a corner, half-way up the wall, it is uncanny in its sense of permanence and simultaneous fragility; its title echoes this sentiment, suggesting something that is forever has also passed.
Bercer Bercé berceau (2019) plays with the phonetic similarities of the words to add tension as objects hang precariously from a single piece of string. Its literal meaning, rocking rocked cradle, calls to mind the nursery rhyme, Rockabye Baby and we look on, waiting for the ‘cradle to fall’.
Wallach’s sculptures appear to grow from the walls, making use of their surrounding space and constantly searching for the centre of gravity that masterminds their suspensions. The artist does not intend for us to understand the works on only one viewing and instead takes us on a journey through geometry and its multiple landscapes, challenging our perceptions and demanding more from our gaze.
For this exhibition, Wallach has also created a new set of editioned prints; Suspension (2020) is based on an unorthodox woodcut of a star, created using oil paint and by rubbing 300gsm paper down onto the woodblock. The work was then photographed, magnified and close-up images produced as pigment prints. The distinct traces of the original woodcut are clearly visible on the enlarged fragments. The image is a reflection on Wallach's monumental installation Down to the Ground, a 40 x 45m concrete star ‘fallen’ into the landscape, created for Krauthügel-Salzburg Foundation in Salzburg.
