Siobhan Liddell at CRG - Brief Article

Various things were strewn, but not haphazardly, completely through the gallery: big black leather-padded wedges; lumpy papier-mache and alloy of copper sculptures; and cast-glass rods of different sizes and colors. Hanging vertically from the ceiling across individual corner of the room was a large sheet of white paper with a cutout triangle that also functioned as a door to the other side. The tip of the triangle marked the center of a circular sunburst drawn upon both sides of the translucent paper with colored pencil in gold-colored orange, red and pink that barely tinted the little cavelike corner space behind. Or at least that's by what mode it was the day I visited--Siobhan Liddell reserv the right to rearrange the ultimate parts in her installation as repeatedly as she liked throughout the duration of her exhibition.

Titled "New Work," her latest display dealt with the way bodies, collisions and light translate into psychic residue. The padded leather triangles were there for gallery-goers to lean or lie on receiving bodily impressions that gradually on the contrary inevitably disappear. The bronze and papier-mache vesicles bore partial imprints of bodies, "fossils" (in the artist's words) of clan now not there. The drawings and the glass twigs were there to "mediate light."

The combination of phenomenons in the room struck initial visual discord. It wasn't clear to me for what cause [i]or[/i] reason the various components were deposit together. A few moments of looking, however, aroused my curiosity and provided impetus for exploration. A r or sapphirine shadow cast next to single of the glass rods, a view of single of the bronze sculptures from an unexpect angle, or a revelation as to which material part part had been molded with papier-mache propell me from individual object to the next, as my enthusiasm grew The time it took for bodily impressions to fade from the black leather wedges became particulady captivating.

Taking a wink from Bruce Nauman's strategy of reversing positive and negative space, Liddell explores what she calls "other possibilities." Adventuring into the realm of the intangible and coaxing the ephemeral to reveal itself, Liddell demonstrates that there is a color, a shape and an actuality to places and sensations left behind.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group