124
PARTISAN REVIEW
that eerie army of life-sized ceramic Chinese tomb figures.
The Barbar–
ians
are strange, unforgettable, and disturbing.
Old pros may have claimed pride of place in the fall season, but
young hopefuls were showcased in
Building Structures
at P.S.
1,
a selec–
tion of work by fifteen young sculptors from New York and abroad
who, according to the curators, "re-stage the context and principles of
architectural techniques." Some emp loyed what must be called building
languages. Some used materials associated with ordinary things and
constructions. Some invoked place. All seemed to take as their point of
departure, more or less exp li citly, the phenomena and objects of our sur–
roundings. Many works, alas, were overly literal or just plain trivial.
Simply displacing domestic cabinetry, however beautifully made, or a
shop awning, however schematized, does not automatically make it
compelling as sculpture, nor does gathering the detritus of packaging or
what have you into haphazard arrangements.
A few works, however, were notable both for their conviction and
invention. The Dutch sculptor Lara Schnitger's playful, precarious
skeletal forms, wrapped with boldly patterned fabric, evoked the figure
more than the built environment, but they had presence and charm.
Ross Knight's wonky aluminum and viny l structure, like a three-dimen–
sional drawing, was one of the few works in the show to make use of
symmetry without appearing simply to have settled for the condition. A
second, smaller piece, was more "artfu l" and less surprising. Knight's
larger sculpture, at once wagon-like, ceremonial, and inexplicable, was
one of the strongest in the show. Another standout, the most inventive
and most fully sculptural work in
Building Structures,
both formally
and in terms of making the physical character of materials expressive,
was newcomer Karlis Rekevics's installation in plaster and wood. A
casual-seeming stack of plaster slabs, some unexpectedly swollen and
notched vertical walls, and a couple of strategically placed light bulbs
became a metaphorical distillation of the least romantic aspects of
urban place, transformed by a simultaneously sensuous, rough material
palette. Rekevics is someone to watch with attention.
