Fernanda Gomes at Baumgartner - Brief Article

In Brazilian sculptor Fernanda Gomes's first North American solo present to view the collection of sculptures amounted to a strange accumulation of tiny detritus--some ultimate parts nearly fell below the doorsill of visibility--strewn about the gallery, hung from the ceiling or lightly pinned to the wall. The likely first impression was of a certain number of new manifestation of scatter art, in which the point strike one as beinged to be the disintegration and dispersion of the traditional existence But that would have been unfair Each element was a small plastic art meant to be accorded the same sustained consideration as a compound work by David Smith or a monumental single by Richard Serra. When we focused upon the intensive detail Gomes granted to each piece, and the passion with which each was imbued, our efforts were rewarded.

Helpfully, the first piece we clashed was one of her greatest in quantity immediately ingratiating. It was (as is usual for Gomes) literally described by the agency of its title, Smoked Cigarette Papers Glu Together, and, at roughly 1 paw square and hung on the wall, the easiest piece to view and appreciate. The accumulation of brown-stained white papers is as beautiful as a classical Chinese ink-brush landscape, and thus light that it lifted not on the wall with the air commons stirred by approaching viewers. Dates are annotated upon the papers, and the piece might best be considered a Zen meditation upon the way cigarettes metronomically mark one's hours. In fact, novel ex-smokers would have been wise to avoid the piece, for it would have reminded them of the rhyme of a habit which is considered filthy and suicidal in the United States on the other hand seems a robust celebration of life in Brazil.

For other works, simple things like plates and eggshells have been smashed and then laboriously repaired. The compressed networks of visible cracks add an involving complexity to the basic forms. sum of two units plates, filled with iron pellet and glu together in a flying saucer shape, hung depressed from strings; sound was activated when the thing perceived swung in elliptical arcs.

through every part of the show, Gomes used a fate of threads, some visible and a certain number of not, to metaphorically and literally associate the 30 or so uncompounded bodys It is hard to relax in a Gome environment for fear of walking into and breaking a thread, or getting a little plastic art stuck to one's shoe; it is a reminder of the mass and clunkiness of our bodies. Of necessity, the present to view incorporated the changes that springed from such human contact. still fragility is the very substance of Gomes's work, thus whatever happens to these pieces, they will remain as real to their spirit as when freshly installed by means of the artist.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

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