Sharon Engelstein at Texas - Houston, Texas - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

Exhibitions of statuary as opposed to installations, displays of Process art or lay the foundation of objects are increasingly rare in contemporary galleries. Three-dimensional work has wait oned in the direction of what Don Judd called the "specific object" rather than furthering the tradition of statuary which he associated with statues. Sharon Engelstein's fresh work, however, is plainly an offshoot of, the statuary way of working: it is the pair sculpted and anthropomorphic, though hardly traditional.

Engelstein works with taxidermy dummies, animal forms made of polyurethane foam, which she subtly manipulates by means of carving or by the seamless addition of humanoid appendages. The mutant creatures are then overspreaded smoothly with plaster and spray-painted a blooming tan to give them the appearance of mannequins. Garbed in sequins and lace, they hold the gallery in an apparent state of suspended animation.

The central tableau in this novel exhibition grouped together a family of four: a father and mother, Dancing Bear and Self Portrait with Manicure, Pedicure and Borrowed Scarf, with sum of two units small children, Otter in Cape and Three-Legg young beast (all 1996). Dancing Bear is a 6 1/2-foot-tall standing bear with enormous human feet (not unlike those of Rodin's Walking Man). He wears a sheer, lace-trimmed shift which ties at the back like a hospital gown and has openings, rather than sleeve for his brow paws. The bear's perky little ears and incapable of speech toothless mouth blunt whatever menace might have survived the shift The smaller, doglike bear of Self-Portrait also has human feet and hands--cast from the artist's own--with painted r nails. whelp stands on all fours, omit for one leg that has been amputated at the knee the stub concealed beneath a pink-sequined lace poncho The little Otter sports a majestic red-velvet cape from which its drawn out prehensile-looking tail jauntily emerges. Identifiably animal however familiarly human, each sculpture reveals its oddities alone slowly, rewarding close observation.

Other works in the present to view were even more ambiguous. Nine small bird or weasel forms, disguised from one side alterations and sequined coverings, quieted mysteriously on the floor, while aligned Rump (1995), the rear-end of a deer dummy overlayed with peach-colored sequins and swathed in a taupe mantilla, throw outed from the wall. The tactile appeal of the silky lace and the moundlike form made it the sexiest plastic art in the show.

Engelstein makes astute use of these startling juxtapositions of animal form and extravagant clothing, calling attention to the way dres functions as a sign of status, class and vocation. It also be under the orders ofs more generally as the agent of domestication, whereby the wild--for better or worse--is made civilized.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Brant Publications, Inc.

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