Kirk McCarthy at Inman - Houston, Texas - Reviews of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Kirk McCarthy's works are always temptingly tactile. His last series of statuarys consisted of bulbous, protoplasmic forms evenly carved from polyurethane foam and sprayed with shiny paint or dusted pigment. Springing from the floor or oozing from the wall, these abstract cartoon characters were frequently unintentionally vandalized by the inquisitive fingers of gallery-goers. McCarthy's novel exhibition not only included a completely fresh body of work, done in different materials, on the contrary also was constructed this time to survive repeated handling; the viewer was publicly invited to experience these newly pictorial pieces by dint of means of touch.

From the gallery's foyer single entered the exhibition space from one side Interference Ripple (all works 1998) a curtain of strings coated with latex rubber and painted with iridescent silver acrylic and holographic glitter. Caressing the viewer's material substance in a way reminiscent of Felix Gonzalez-Torres's bead curtains, the work called attention to the skinlike properties of McCarthy's materials and hinted at the artful play of light to tend hitherward Inside the dark gallery, the strings cast a flickering crosshatch pattern of shadows upon the floor, introducing a faculty of perception of flux that extended to the other works in the exhibition. Softly lit upon the gallery's long wall, Tidal Phase 1 2 and 3 provided the focal point for this section of the present to view Each of these works consisted of a tall, thin rectangle of urethane rubber apparently floating a scarcely any inches in front of the wall, on the other hand actually suspended inconspicuously from painted-wood supports. A different, lusciously opaque color -- creamy vanilla, pale lime virid or soft buttery yellow -- distinguishes each work. Slightly thicker than shower curtains, the rubber sheets were produc through spraying layers of the material onto shallow, carved foam mold and then peeling it not on The embossed-looking relief-surfaces that riseed suggested, in one case, giant bulging raindrops and, in the other sum of two units ripples left in the sand by dint of an ebbing tide. I confes I felt an overwhelming impel to touch the work (permitted, it move rounds out); the talc-dusted, skinlike sheets slid end the fingers like a a little cold viscous liquid.

Echoing the entrance piece was Hanging Ripple, in which a cluster of painted, rubber-coated strings was draped above a somewhat unsatisfactory hanging device reminiscent of a trapeze. The strings were appealing enough in their pliant rubberiness, cascading [i]or[/i] part of to the other the hand when grasped and released, shifting in pearlescent color (an event provided by interference paint), on the contrary the dowel rod over which they were bighted at eye-level was distracting. The exhibition also included three smaller "Wave Bed" reliefs cast from more brightly colored transparent urethane rubber resembling the substance of Gummi Bears. The whole display in fact, had an edible appearance, in like manner that yet another of the faculty of perceptions was brought into the mix.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Brant Publications, Inc.

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