Now showing at Magnan Metz: For his first US show, Colombian artist Miler Lagos presents HOME, a pair of projects reflecting on the delicate balance between nature and culture, and the immaterial and material qualities that make up a “home.”

Igloo, a playful-looking 9-foot domed sculpture in the front gallery space, is composed of layers of books from a defunct US Navy base library. The outer white shell consists of the books’ paper pages, while the inside reveals colorful bindings from a selection of foreign language dictionaries, medical reference series, geographical studies, and psychology volumes, all laid like bricks in a cylindrical shape. To Lagos, the igloo is both a shelter to protect its inhabitants from nature and a space where knowledge is passed down from one generation to the next. At the same time, it is a fragile structure, vulnerable as man himself.

Water House, the exhibit’s second, similarly whimsical piece, is a video playing on looped projection. Inspired by Lagos’s time in Manhattan, and specifically the water towers that dot the city’s skyline, Water House reverses the concept of the water tank: rather than a structure that holds water in, Lagos’s video follows a structure designed to keep water out, making it a refuge for human life.

HOME is on display through October 15th at Chelsea’s Magnan Metz Gallery.
521 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001

Now Showing: “Three Heads Six Arms” (2008), a colossal and beautiful temporary sculpture by celebrated Chinse artist Zhang Huan, makes its world premier in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center this summer, in conjunction with the Shanghai-San Francisco Sister City 30th Anniversary Celebration. Set in the Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza, “Three Heads Six Arms” stands over 26 feet tall and weighs almost fifteen tons, making it Zhang’s largest sculpture to date. It is on loan (courtesy of the artist and The Pace Gallery, NY) through 2011.

Revisiting many of the social and existential themes that have made Zhang’s work resonate so broadly,
“Three Heads Six Arms” is part of a series of monumental works depicting the fragmented extremities of Buddhist statues. The series was inspired by Zhang’s discovery of religious sculptures that had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution for sale in a Tibetan market. He began the series in 2006 shortly after moving from New York to Shanghai, where he retired his performance art practice and embraced a more traditional approach to artistic creation. His recent work is characterized by a more overt relationship with traditional Chinese culture and Buddhist iconography. However, he continues to use the body as a primary vehicle for exploring existential questions and expressing emotions, and it is a common thematic thread through his various artworks.

The first sculptures in the Buddha series included nine large-scale copper fingers, based on remains he collected during his visit to Tibet. According to Zhang, “When I saw these fragments in Lhasa, a mysterious power impressed me. They’re embedded with historical and religious traces, just like the limbs of a human being.” The fingers of Buddhist deities are considered highly symbolic because they convey different spiritual meanings through various hand gestures, or mudras. Zhang continued the series with several even larger sculptures combining the legs, feet, hands and heads of Buddhist deities. The artist, having been deeply moved by the sight of the desecrated statues, believes that by recreating these fragments on a grand scale, he is able to alleviate the pain caused by their destruction.

According to the artist, “The shape of ‘Three Heads Six Arms’ came from my correlation of it with the Chinese mythological character Nezha, inspiration came from Tibetan Buddhist sculptures. I replaced two of the three Buddha heads with human heads.” Among the sculpture’s three heads is a self-portrait of the artist. In his earlier performances and photographs, Zhang always placed himself at the center of the action. Using his own body as his primary medium, he would subject himself to extreme physical trials and exploits often in front of large audiences. By introducing himself into the Buddha series, he reinstates this practice and draws a parallel between the body of Buddhist deities and his own. “Three Heads Six Arms” exemplifies how the layers of ideas explored in his performance pieces have carried through to his more traditional studio practice. “’Three Heads Six Arms’ reflects the changing realities of Chinese people today and also reflects the attitude that humankind has conquered nature and even reflects deeds of volition and hope,” said Zhang.

Zhang chose San Francisco as the ideal setting to debut his sculpture, in part because of the long-standing history being honored between Shanghai and San Francisco during this year’s Sister City Celebration. “The Shanghai San Francisco Sister City celebration commemorates this important time in the history of our two countries when the exchange of art, culture and ideas between the East and West is marked by openness and mutual appreciation. While ‘Three Heads Six Arms’ clearly embodies ideas that are rooted in Chinese culture and tradition, it is also about our common humanity. I hope that, while the sculpture is in San Francisco, it will serve as a bridge between these two great cities and that it will continue to foster this spirit of tolerance and appreciation,” said Zhang.

For more information, visit www.sfartscommission.org.

Above series: Zhang Huan’s “Three Heads Six Arms,” 2008. Copper. 26′ 3″ x 59′ 3/4″ x 32′ 9-3/4″ (800 cm x 1,800 cm x 1,000 cm). Photographs by Bruce Damonte.

**All images courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission

Starting this week, the single-work, sound installation Bruce Nauman: Days will fill The Museum of Modern Art‘s Special Exhibition Gallery. A recent addition to the Museum’s collection, Nauman‘s Days (2009) was created for, and debuted at, the 2009 Venice Biennale, where the contemporary American artist represented the United States with the solo exhibition Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens. The installation is on display through August 23, 2010.

Days is a “sound sculpture” consisting of a continuous stream of seven voices reciting the days of the week in random order. Fourteen suspended speakers are installed in two rows with one voice emanating from each pair of speakers as the visitor passes between them. There are men’s voices and women’s voices, old and young. Some speak swiftly, others with pause, each with his or her own cadence. The collection of distinctive voices produces a chorus—at times cacophonous, at others, resonant—and creates a sonic cocoon that envelops the visitor. The work invokes both the banality and the profundity of the passing of each day, and invites reflection on how we measure, differentiate, and commemorate time. The installation is organized by Doryun Chong, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art.

Nauman has been recognized since the early 1970s as one of the most innovative and provocative of America’s contemporary artists. He finds inspiration in the activities, speech, and materials of everyday life. Working in the diverse mediums of sculpture, video, film, printmaking, performance, and installation, Nauman concentrates less on the development of a characteristic style and more on the way in which a process or activity – in and of itself – can transform or become a work of art.

Bruce Nauman: Days
Showing through August 23, 2010
Special Exhibition Gallery, third floor
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street New York, NY 10019

*above: Bruce Nauman (American, born 1941): Days. 2009. One audio source consisting of seven stereo audio files, fourteen speakers, two amplifiers, and additional equipment. Dimensions variable. Audio(fourteen channels). Continuous play. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase © 2010 Bruce Nauman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Installation view at The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Photograph by Constance Mensh.

Opening later this month, The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents Big Bambú, a monumental bamboo structure by American identical twin artists Mike and Doug Starn (born 1961). The site-specific installation on the museum’s Roof Garden opens to the public on April 27, and will ultimately measure 100 feet long by 50 feet wide by 50 feet high in the form of a cresting wave, bridging the worlds of sculpture, architecture, and performance.

Big Bambú’s construction will incorporate the efforts of the artists and a team of rockclimbers, and visitors are encouraged to witness it as an evolving, organic project throughout the spring, summer and fall. A continually growing, changing sculpture, it will comprise thousands of fresh-cut bamboo poles—a complex network of 5,000 interlocking 30- and 40-foot-long bamboo poles, which will be lashed together with 50 miles of nylon rope.

The initial, roughly 30-foot high by 50-foot-wide by 100-foot-long structure will be completed by opening day on April 27; next, the eastern portion of the sculpture will be built up by the artists and rock climbers to an elevation of some 50 feet; and by summer, the western portion of the sculpture will be elevated by the artists and rock climbers to around 40 feet in height. An internal footpath artery system grows within the structure, facilitating the progress of the organism. The ephemeral state of the work will be documented by the artists in various scale photographs and video.

According to the Museum’s Gary Tinterow, “Although the Starn brothers are best known for their photographs, in fact their abiding interest is in organic systems and structures, as seen in their photographs of trees, leaves, and snow flakes, or here, in Big Bambú. We are intrigued by the possibilities of this ever-evolving structure on our Roof Garden, which, when animated by the team of rock climbers, will become an organic system of its own.”

And artist Mike Starn notes, “It is a temporary structure in a sense, but it is a sculpture—not a static sculpture, it’s an organism that we are just a part of—helping it to move along,” said Mike Starn. “We will be constructing a slice of seascape, like our photographs, a cutaway view of a wave constantly in motion—our growth and change remains invariable, it is constant and unchanged.”

And, he explains, “The reason we had to make it so big is to make all of us feel small—or at least to awaken us to the fact that individually we are not so big. Once we’re aware of our true stature we can feel a part of something much more vast than we could ever have dreamed of before.”

Big Bambú opens to the public April 27. It runs April 27– October 31, 2010 (weather permitting).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 5th Avenue, New York
www.metmuseum.org

Gordon Bennett’s one-of-a-kind robot sculptures are made from a combination of old and new found objects. Working out of his Park Slope, Brooklyn studio, Bennett and his family collectively hunt for parts at local stoop sales, garbage dumps, construction sites, basements and everywhere in between.

Made from wood, metal, bakelite, glass, rubber, plastic and paint, each robot takes about a month to build, and ranges in height from 14″ to 36″. There are no batteries or moving parts; they’re created as works of art, not toys. Every one of Bennett’s robots receives a numbered metal tag as proof of authentication.

Gordon Bennett has been creating these rockin’ little robots for about 7 years now. Bennett Robot Works was originally inspired by Norman Bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy, whose visions of the “Modern Age” helped shape 1940′s and ’50′s industrial design.

For more information, visit www.bennettrobotworks.com

*Images courtesy of Bennett Robot Works.

Since the late 1990s, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has created interactive, immersive sculptural environments using translucent, stretchable fabrics. “Navedenga” (1998) – one of Neto’s early, quasi-architectural bodies – is on view now at the Museum of Modern Art through late April.

The enveloping sculptural environment invites the audience to participate in a work of art, as they enter the sculpture’s hollow chamber and engage it with their visual, tactile, and olfactory senses. Responsive to the touch, “Navedenga” was constructed from Lycra fabric, Styrofoam and sand, and embedded with aromatic cloves. Its soft, sensuous surface, and round, taut contours reference and evoke the human body.

The installation’s form and the title—a neologism created by the artist that recalls the Portuguese word “nave,” or “ship”—suggest both a fantastical spacecraft and a protective womb. It’s part of a series of “naves” by Neto, alluding to journeys both intimate and expansive, feminine and masculine.

For more information, visit MoMA.org.
All images courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art:
Ernesto Neto, “Navedenga.” 1998. Polyamide stretch fabric, sand, Styrofoam, cloves, cord, and ribbon. 144 x 180 x 252″ (365.8 x 457.2 x 640.1 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Donald L. Bryant, Jr. Installation photographed at The Museum of Modern Art, 2010. Photo © 2010 Jason Mandella.

For his newest series, “Alteration,” artist/sculptor Greg Lauren has hand-sewn treated Japanese paper to simulate various materials (wool, cotton, gabardine), frayed edges, wrinkles and folds. Each of his paper garments represents a different male character or archetype, all personally relevant to Lauren (who happens to be the nephew of fashion legend Ralph Lauren), and painstakingly crafted over the last year and a half. Each piece explores complex ideas regarding inherited ideals, and the stimuli one encounters on the way to owning his individual identity. As Lauren says, “I was taught to dress like Cary Grant and JFK, but actually felt more like Charlie Chaplin or Oliver Twist.” The resulting pieces are absolutely incredible – beautiful, exacting, layered with multiple meanings. The show is on view at 28 Wooster Street through November 1st. For more info, check out my review at clearmag.com.

Over the long weekend, I finally got a chance to see “Maelstrom” (2009) by American artist Roxy Paine. Set on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Maelstrom” is a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture. Walking out onto the rooftop, surrounded by gorgeous views of the city and Central Park, visitors are encompassed by the sculpture – what initially appears to be a chaotic maze of tree branches. It is Paine’s largest and most ambitious work to date, and it gives one a sense of being immersed in the middle of a cataclysmic force of nature.

But there is definitely order to the piece – the steel itself implies this, as does the piece’s overall grace. And the juxtaposition of the natural world and the built environment – “Maelstrom” is one of the Paine’s Dendroids, based on systems like vascular networks, tree roots, industrial piping, and fungal mycelia – further reinforces Paine’s balanced success. The installation is up through November 29th, and I definitely recommend stopping by. I know I’ll be back, if only to see how Paine’s piece plays with the changing seasons in NY.

For more information, visit The Met’s website. And check out the installation video below.