What
could be a better
time to celebrate the moon than winter, the season when days grow shorter and long winter nights set
in? The haunting glow of the moon’s light on wet streets and snowy lawns gives the season an introspective
mood and the unseen processes taking place in the moonlight shadows of winter lead to changes that will
emerge in the light of spring. An artist who has expressed an ongoing fascination for the moon and its
mysteries is Ugo Rondinone. Moonrise is the title of an extensive
series of giant, ghost-like sculptures, which he presented at the Matthew Marks Gallery this past fall.
Twelve sculptures, each named for a month of the year, loom nine feet
high. Set on rough plinths, their amorphous shapes and rough modeling give them the look of primitive
clay gods that recall the mysterious giant sculptures of Easter Island. Monumental and monster-like,
each specter wears a different expression. While Moonrise.east.march bears a wide
toothy grin that gives him the air of a quite sympathetic phantom, Moonrise.east.december
seems fearful and therefore frightening. With each new month comes a different mood and state of mind.
With these expressive faces, the Swiss artist Rondinone seems to draw on the archetypical notion of
the moon as a metaphor for the psyche and emotions that refuse to be governed by the clear reason of
the light of day. More than gods or ghosts, these creatures could be expressions of mysteries that lie
within. No wonder that these beings seem so freaky and yet so human and familiar.
Link:
http://www.matthewmarks.com/index.php?n=2&c=7&e=438&l=&pr=1
