KAREN WILKI N
171
Gibson' s co nvin cing illusio ni sm evapo rates as you look. The play of
bght and dark qui ckly declares itsel f to have no thing to do with modelling
form o r indi ca tin g a li ght source. A pair of striped spheres, instead of
remaining side by side o n a ho ri zontal plane, begin to ca rve o ut separate,
irreconcilabl e positi o ns in non-space. The artifice o f art declares itself.
Pictures that seemed , at first sight, to be abo ut representing the wo rld prove
to be wholly about th e ac t of makin g a pi cture and the materials with
which it is made.
Gibson's paintings are dee pl y info rmed by pas t traditi ons o f Wes tern
painting, but ultimatel y, th eir homage to the pas t- their meti cul o usness,
luminosity, and modulated hues-is fa r less signifi ca nt than th eir
unabashed moderni sm . G ibson's subversio n of traditi on by shi fting empha–
sis from illusio ni sm to physica li ty, from th e perceived to the irrati onal,
makes hi s works mys teri o us and memo rable.
That las t sentence could also be appli ed, despi te fundamentally differ–
ing premi ses, to Patri ck Irela nd 's
Elltra llce to thc Ca rr/clI
C?f
Earthly Delights,
the lates t in hi s seri es of room-sized pain ting-d rawing-sculptures, install ed
at C harl es Cowles thi s fa ll. T he piece expanded Irela nd's o n-going expl o–
ration (o r "dissectio n") of ways of diagramming space. As in hi s ea rlier
constructio ns, you were all owed to penetrate a room whose walls were
painted with sc hemati c "a rchitec ture." R ath er than being encouraged to
see
illta
these fi cti ve spaces, you we re thrust o ut o f them by a ca t's cradl e
of stretched co rds that proj ected th e trajec to ri es of the paintings' illusion–
ary structures and pull ed th eir va ni shing points into th e viewer's space,
turning conve ntio ns of perspec tiva l representati o n inside out. Irel and 's odd
colo r- purpl e, peac h, li ght blue, and yellow green, perched somewhere
between swee tness and ac idity-heightened th e sense of disequilibrium by
being bo th appea ling and sli ghtl y abrasive.
In
pas t install ations , Irel and direc ted you to a center va ntage point
from w hi ch the airbo rn e drawing lin ed up w ith the painted divisio ns (the
equivalent o f fl oor patterns in Baroque churches marking the spo t from
w hi ch painted
illqllar/mtllra
looks like real architecture); here he encouraged
you to wander, to promenade in the " ai sle" between the plunging cords
and painted wa ll s, to di scove r the multipl e, unstabl e ali gnments made pos–
sible by hi s compl ex three-dimensio nal drawing. You became aware of
asymmetries and warpages, unfo reseen densiti es and transparencies, breaks
in th e co lo r of stretched lin es, surpri sin g curves and co lo r shifts. C lea rly,
Irel and 's concepti on of "earthl y deli ght" embraces no t onl y sensual pl ea–
sure, but considerable intell ec tual stimulati o n as well.
A similar di scussio n o f " body-ness" and " mind- ness" info rmed Mia
Wes terlund
I~oose n 's
rece nt sculptures at Lenn on- Weinberg. An extensio n
o f her continuin g preocc upati o n with breaking spati al bo undari es, they
