the disappearing gallery

French artist Etienne Chambaud, along with a team of architects/engineers, have reinvigorated my interest in site-specific artwork. Their installation On Hospitality, now on view at Galeria LABOR, is married to the architecture of the gallery and reveals itself in stages. As you enter the primary exhibition space, you are confronted with a mobile of steel poles hanging from a single cable loop at the apex of the ceiling.

But it isn't mobile at all, as the cables from the lowest hanging poles plunge straight into the concrete floor, anchoring the piece.

Aside from feeling a Richard Serra-like danger as I climbed through the space, I had some big questions that needed answering. How is it possible that this rinky-dink tin roof can support the weight of these poles? I also couldn't help but wonder where the cables led to in the floor. Something about the stillness and incredible tension between these perpendicular lines gave the illusion that perhaps the piece was supported from below? Impossible.

I noticed people heading into a secondary gallery space in the basement. It was pitch black, and my eyes were adjusting slowly. Luckily, I was able to make out the large boulder hanging inches in front of my face before it could knock me out.

One question answered: the cables go through the floor, into the basement, with a boulder attached to each one. This revelation fills out the image of a mobile and also adds so much more weight to it. I'm still mystified as to how the whole thing is supported...

At the far end of the room is a rear-projected 16mm film loop showing still shots of a desert landscape in black and white. In addition to providing a much needed light-source, the film has a way of mimicking the sculpture. The medium of film in general offers the illusion of motion, but the artist chose only to represent stillness -perhaps mirroring how the giant mobile is denied its ability to move. I also admired the choice of a hidden projector. This show seems to be about revealing part of the story at a time.

Leaving the gallery, I felt mostly satisfied with what I had experienced but still had one lingering concern...

Wow. There's a 4-story, heavy-duty crane holding it all up. This single, monumental sculpture is experienced only as a three part narrative (in any order, really), and I now can complete the mobile image in my mind. I love how the gallery building itself becomes irrelevant to the internal structure of the piece, but instead, serves as a vehicle to guide our experience and understanding of it. The art object and the gallery space depend on eachother but are barely touching.

On Hospitality 2010
Etienne Chambaud
Galeria LABOR, col. Roma

-PJ