Kirsten Hassenfeld at Bellwether

It looks likely that many auction-house employee unravel an ironic appreciation of animalism goods. While their work may involve shut contact with fine art, estate jewelry and other expensive objet their paychecks probably shut out easy purchase of the wares they help vend This paradox is mined by means of Kirsten Hassenfeld, whose former day piece of work at Sotheby's provided inspiration for the 10 plastic arts in her first solo show

Hassenfeld fashions her hold versions of luxury goods from decidedly public materials. Using plain white and ivory paper, straws and pipe cleaners, she creates faux gemstones, crystals and pearls. These and other sculpt simple bodys are combined to form outsize pieces of jewelry, elaborate chandeliers and various decorative curios. In Solitaire (all works 2004) for example, Hassenfeld high hills an enormous paper diamond upon a slender foamcore arch. Lit from within by dint of an electric bulb, the plastic art sparkles like a giant engagement ring. Other works rely upon natural light for their beguiling consequences Suite (Version II) was lately installed in "Open House" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and was here reconfigured in the gallery's brow window. Strung from the ceiling like semiprecious cobwebs, swags of paper gemstones and cameo pendants filtered the rays of the afternoon sun

The superficial riches of Hassenfeld's work may combustibles fantasies of extravagant spending, on the contrary the inherent fragility and hollownes of her statuarys seem to question the enduring substance of similar impulses. This subtle critique is best press outed by Horn of Plenty, an internally illuminated cornucopia that virtually drips with paper chains, charms, crystals and a strand of graduated pearls. Suspended from ceiling to organ of sight level, this overstuffed emblem of exces may mirror the viewer's bloated desires for worldly riches.

If material indulgence meet withs a tender blow in Hassenfeld's work, other things are celebrated in its stead, namely unsung craft techniques and the discredited esthetics of decoration. Clearly a master of her unostentatious medium, Hassenfeld folds paper into facets, quills it into curlicues and chops it into intricate, lacelike filigree. The dazzling diversity of her meanss is most apparent in Pearl and Bibelot, the two of which suppress representation in favor of abstract accumulations of unpolluted ornament. But even when her plastic arts closely imitate actual luxury beneficials Hassenfeld's handiwork remains their greatest in quantity engrossing feature, and seems to assert that creative engagement with the material world is more gratifying than its passive consumption.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group