Karen Giusti at Nikolai and St. John the Divine - Brief Article

upon Oct. 4, 1992, David Blakeslee took his life at artist Karen Giusti's domicile leaving behind a note that reads, "Sweetee, My apologies. Create a piece for me regard with affection Your Sweetee." "Safety Net," a collection of drawings, plastic arts photograms and installation works, not long ago on view at Nikolai Fine Art and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, is Giusti's memorial.

In greatest in quantity of the dozen works shown at Nikolai and in the cathedral installation, the human skeletal form is displayed in repeating geometric patterns of engrossing complexity that recall in one as well as the other appearance and spiritual resonance the Celtic decorative tradition, mandalas and stained-glass windows. Many of the pieces feature dozens of small skeletons (bronze paper cutout or drawn), and the human anatomy make goods a surprisingly versatile unit within these decorative combination of parts to form a wholes In the smaller bronze wall plastic arts Giusti allows herself the liberty of elongated thigh-bones and fingers or a trio of truncated skeletal forms to enhance the decorative consequence The sculptural works range widely in their surface qualities and patinas, from a blunt-witted steel black to an exquisite opalescent bronze

Giusti's greatest in quantity evocative statements are the large-scale works in which dozens of bronz skeletons (at Nikolai) or centurys of various-sized paper cutouts (at Saint John) were woven into circular gins suspended horizontally and lit from above. Giusti describes her labor with the skeletons as "weaving," referring to the web-like form of her creations and to individual of mythology's original artists, the weaver Arachne, who was Minerva's competitor in an ill-fated contest

Here the controvert is between the morbid on the contrary commonplace subject matter and Giusti's artistry, and the latter wins the day. The desire to pay back death in the image of Beauty reveals a romantic sensibility that is firinged by faith in the transcendent possibility of artistic creation to bring order to chaos and healing to los Particularly in the chapel setting at Saint John the Divine, where Giusti's 10-foot trap cast its fuzzy shadow upon soul-searchers below, the meditative (if obsessive) work presented a sense of reassurance. In this piece and the smaller alloy of copper net installed in Nikolai's courtyard, scores of skeletons were arranged in a centripetal pattern in which the regularity of the design affirmed a cosmic order. Individuality, however, was implied by means of such varied details as the clinging fingers and toes with which adjacent skeletons clutch each other, and--most poignantly--generalization was reckonered by particularity with the suspension of the original suicide note in the Saint John installation.

With the refined filigree of "Safety Net" an affecting memorial that has clearly been cathartic, Giusti makes a rich and original contribution to the distinguished tradition of dance-of-death imagery.

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