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A Show for a Forgotten Faith, Menil Collection, Houston
Radcliffe Bailey. Storm at Sea, 2007. Piano keys, African sculpture, model boat, paper, acrylic, glitter, gold leaf 212" x 213". Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, NY, © Radcliffe Bailey
June 27th - September 21st, 2008
At a certain point in our lives, some of us need some kind of inspiration to keep going. We may start doing exercises every morning, spend a fortune on books that will never be read, or unsuccessfully try to translate our feelings into words. One gets lost in a long-term process of searching for meaning while walking back and forth between the kitchen and the computer room, not knowing what to say or think or dream. (With a bit of luck we’ll always have a nearby coffee shop to go to or a polite neighbor who’ll remind us that we’ve got to have faith).
”NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith” is the current group show on display at The Menil Collection. Faith expressed in different manners and through a great variety of media. Some of the pieces emphasize the magical character found in ritual experiences whereas others convey another sense of spirituality, playing with images that connect with the very own natural, religious, devout being of the spectator. No doubt those are the works that help to awaken our forgotten faith.
Robert Gober’s “Untitled” is one of the most lyrical of the artworks presented. A small cavity made inside the wall produces a powerful impact on the viewers since it can’t be seen from regular eye level, but it obliges us to look above our heads. Three iron bars are placed within, allowing a tenuous light to come out through the spaces left between them. The spectator collapses into the furtive beauty of the vacuum confined. There is an involuntary burning in our stomach as we realize that each and every molecule of our empty bodies finally releases all negativity.
”Storm at the Sea” by Radcliffe Bailey sits in a hidden corner of the room. Hundreds of superposed piano keys represent the furious ocean, with undulating waves (or flames?) that contradict the innate solidity of the sticks. The imaginary water surrounds an African sculpture that adds an accentuated religious solemnity to the piece. We don’t know for sure whether or not the statue depicts the image of a venerated divinity, and still the miraculous appearance of the figure becomes an unavoidable magnet for the spectators.
The work of Jimmie Durham “Anti-Brancusi” features a serpentine stone resembling a foot or a shoe. The stone, which was formed by the river, rests on a pedestal built with four cardboard boxes in different sizes. Were these boxes used to ship the precious stone? The whole story appears written on a piece of paper, and it refers to the similarities and differences between Brancusi’s abstract sculptures and Durham’s stone.
”Atrabiliarios” by Doris Salcedo constitutes a climactic work in this exhibition. The artist collects shoes worn by people who have vanished in the course of political violence in Colombia, covering them with animal fiber. Are the shoes a symbolic representation of the soul that has been encapsulated? Considered as historical objects, these footwear items happen to be the only vestige that permits us to know about or remember the victims.
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