HEADS: A Rich and Layered Self-Reflection
In the Sperone Westwater Gallery in New York City’s Lower East Side resides Not Vital’s PIZ, the latest exhibition that encompasses a range of recurrent motifs in the artist’s practices. However, HEADS—a series of sculptures portraying the artist and his friends—most powerfully shapes the gallery’s space and depicts Vital’s artistic progression. Created in a black, pure, and advanced finish, the sculptures are scattered throughout the ground floor of the gallery and are accompanied by some paintings (also portraits) that preceded them and that feature the same motif (i.e., minimalism). Though at first glance the exhibit is simple and sparse, the artistic objects tell a story with more layers than are readily apparent.
Figure 1: HEADS in the Sperone Westwater Gallery, photograph by Yangxingyue Wang, September 26, 2014, Sperone Westwater Gallery, NY.
The exteriors of the sculptures, which could be described as artistic designs that are neither true representations nor abstractions, reveal a paradox that illustrates the controversies and combinations of the past, present, and future. Rukhsana Jahangir observed, “The paucity of detail across the HEADS recalls the earliest types of artistic depictions, the simplified representational articulations of prehistoric painted and sculptural forms. Yet despite these allusions to such archaic art historical predecessors, the artist has rendered this commanding depiction with an aesthetic finish that undoubtedly belongs to this age.”[1] However, the highly polished, mirror-like surface and the big-end-up, anti-gravity shape indicate not only our contemporary era but a distant future that belies the artist’s austere handling of details, suggesting a paring down over a long period of time.
Additionally, Vital’s nomadic life across diverse cultures and contexts rendered the “heads” appearing to be connected to both the West and the East. The use of stainless steel as a material and the cutting-edge technique Vital employed resonate intimately with Jeff Koons’ metal cast, Rabbit. Both works include only few facial details, and they both attract a wide range of interpretations; further, their convexes and concaves reflect and distort viewer images and physical environments. However, Koon’s sculpture has a shiny silver tone, whereas HEADS features a pure black color that expresses profundity and serenity. Though deprived of most details, the figures are not totally effaced (i.e., the most descriptive features remain). This means of execution reveals a telling connection to the traditional Chinese ink painting, which bears subtle nuances in its concise yet carefully composed brushstrokes that convey a potent likeness of the real world. One difference between these two forms is that Vital has transformed the ink drops on the flat Chinese painting into a 3-D landscape through which viewers can travel both physically and mentally. The paintings on the second floor demonstrate a even stronger reference. The painted profiles that were sketched swiftly bear a strong resemblance to the expressive style of Xieyi—freehand brushwork depicting the spirits of beings in traditional Chinese paintings, rendering the portraits suitable for both distant gazes and close scrutiny.
Gallery patrons are most amazed by the way the physical presence of the sculptures reshapes the space that they inhabit. Placed in the tall and narrow mezzanine of the Sperone Westwater Gallery, the highly polished “ink drops” draw in light, both artificial and natural, from all directions and cast multiple shaded “ripples” onto the surrounding floor, rendering the concrete ground soft and transparent and greatly expanding the space. In turn, the gallery’s flowing interior structures—especially the movable space of the freight elevator and the open balcony that overlooks the ground floor—facilitate the visual connections between different exhibits and contribute to spreading the power of the works throughout the entire space. Here again, it is interesting to see that contradictions are embodied in this exhibition. The refined, sophisticated appearance of the sculptures contrasts with the rough and exposed mechanical structures in the lobby and the “Ferrari-red”[2] coating of the elevator—indicating the industrial and commercial nature of the surrounding area. It would appear that this contrast would be conducive for exclusive sculptural exhibits; on the contrary, they indiscriminately reflect the entrance of every person and dynamically connect the inside and the outside. Further, the energy they create is opposed to the uninviting entrance of the gallery.
Though inspired by the social changes in China and individual sitters surrounding the artist every day, the disarming nature of the sculptures makes them susceptible to both personal and collective narratives in various contexts. Placed in nature, their streamlined bodies blend with the surroundings organically; placed in the artist’s studio in China, they represent the loss of selfhood amidst the fast pace of social change. Finally, placed in a gallery in the Lower East Side, they outline controversies and changes introduced by the area’s redevelopment. When confronted with these blank faces, we are not seeing someone else; instead, we see ourselves and how we interact with the world.
[1] Paris Marais, “HEADS,” accessed October 6, 2014, http://ropac.net/exhibition/heads.
[2] Wikipedia, “Sperone Westwater Gallery,” accessed October 6, 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperone_Westwater_Gallery.