GET WELL SOON
In the first room, the pristine elegance of a work by New York artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (Blue Mirror), soothes the senses while raising disturbing questions. A two-foot-high stack of offset-printed paper has been placed on the floor. On each sheet, a medium blue rectangle is framed by a pale blue outer border. This deceptively simple work comments directly on the value and relevance of a “unique” art object in a world of limitless reproduction. (Gallery staff invite viewers to take home a sheet from the pile gratis, but outright purchase of the entire work would be $7,000.) On another level, this piece seems to recall the blue paper gowns worn during a medical exam, or the paper place mats used to cover hospital meal trays. These allusions lead us to wonder who or what is sick. What’s the diagnosis? The prognosis? Considered in this light, the “mirror” of the title is jolting. It makes the work almost accusatory, placing responsibility for the current unhealthiness, both inside and outside the art world, with each of us.
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It is then a delightful surprise to come upon the next work, by German artist Isa Genzken: a large color photograph of a human ear. Simply titled Ears, it plays off the Jacob piece; it “hears” the sound of the column’s breathing. Ears also reminds us of various ways of hearing, from the voyeurism of eavesdropping to the necessity of listening carefully during any meaningful discussion. A round white earring persuades us this is a female ear, and a feminist reading might interpret the work as critical of women’s relegation to the status of passive listeners in a world of patriarchal talkers. In physical terms, the ear is a pathway to the mind itself. And when we recall Van Gogh’s famous ear severing, this work suddenly clinches the link between artist, body, illness, and the world.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/courtesy Robbin Lockett Gallery.
