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Brochure to accompany the Tara Donovan exhibition, October 10, 2008 - January 4, 2009
Citation preview
Look Closer
100
Accumulation becomes transformation
as sculptor Tara Donovan turns ordinary,
manufactured objects into astounding
works of art. Massive quantities of mun-
dane items—straight pins, buttons, plastic
cups, Scotch tape—are stacked, looped,
twisted and folded to determine “how the
material will behave.” In this way, Donovan
creates astonishing visual experiences
that attest to the poetic wonder of close
looking and bigger thinking about the
materials that surround us.
This exhibition, the fi rst museum
survey in Donovan’s career, demonstrates
the artist’s ingenuity with 17 extraordinary
works, including an installation created
especially for the ICA. Much of the artist’s
work draws comparisons to art of the
1960s, such as Minimalism, with its plain
geometric forms, and Conceptualism,
which shifted emphasis onto the creative
process. Like the artists of this earlier
generation, Donovan uses grids, cubes
and repetition, however her sculptures
build upon and extend their ideas, trans-
forming familiar materials into unique
works of art.
Donovan’s sculptures are deliberately
integrated with their architectural setting.
In some, materials pool directly on the
fl oor; in others, the gallery walls or ceiling
act as a frame for the work. Donovan
refers to this aspect of her art as “site-
responsive,” since its forms may adapt to
subtly different architectural spaces.
We invite you to use this guide as
you move through the exhibition and to
take a close look at Donovan’s sculptures
and the rooms they inhabit. It is this
careful inspection, co-curator Jen Mergel
points out, which “rewards our curiosity.”
“I develop a dialogue with each material
that dictates the forms” —Tara Donovan
Bluffs, 2006
Three versions; buttons and glue
Mugrabi Collection
Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles
Private collection
Hear more on the ICA’s free audio
commentary. Borrow an iPod from the
admissions desk, access on your cell phone
at 617-231-4055, or download to your MP3
player at www.icaboston.org/gofurther.
POSS FAMILY MEDIATHEQUE
A new video explores Tara Donovan’s
creative process and her focus on the interac-
tion between the visitor, the artwork, and the
gallery space. Available October 14.
Public Tours
The ICA offers public tours of Tara Donovan
on Target Free Thursday Nights at 6 pm and
each Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm. Tours are
free with museum admission and leave from
the lobby.
ICA interpretive programs are made possible
by the signifi cant support of the Carl and Ruth
Shapiro Family Foundation. Additional support
is provided by the Nathaniel
Saltonstall Arts Fund.
Untitled (Toothpicks), 1996
Wooden toothpicks
Private collection
(Reproduced below)
Untitled (Pins), 2004
Straight pins
Collection of the artist
Untitled (Glass), 2004
Tempered glass
Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
From afar these cubes may resemble shimmering mesh, icy
crystals, or tangled splinters. A closer look at these sculptures
reveals the massive number of toothpicks, pins and glass sheets
the artist used to create them. Donovan’s repetition of the same
form using different materials highlights the uniqueness of each:
pins’ shiny thinness, toothpicks’ dry lattice, or the opaque, narrow
openings through once transparent glass.
While the cube has been explored by artists from the
1960s for its stable wholeness, here Donovan fractures the
solid form, relying only on the unseen forces of friction, gravity,
and inertia to contain loose parts as a coherent whole.
101, 102
Untitled (Plastic Cups), 2006/2008
Plastic cups
Courtesy of Arne and Milly Glimcher
Donovan stacks over three million 7-ounce cups at varying
heights within a sprawling rectangular perimeter. Although
presented in a grid—a system artists of the 1960s utilized for its
rational geometric order—Donovan’s cups defy containment. The
stacks of cups tilt and lean in irregular undulating patterns. The
artist’s simple gesture of stacking unleashes an unpredictable
energy of seemingly boundless expansion.
“I assemble units that I reproduce and collect in
various ways to discover how they will behave
visually in a population.”
103
Untitled (Paper Plates), 2005
Three versions; paper plates and hot glue
Beth Rudin DeWoody
Wanda Kownacki, Courtesy of Edward Boyer
Fine Art Advisory
Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles
Bluffs, 2006
Three versions; buttons and glue
Mugrabi Collection
Ovitz Family Collection, Los Angeles
Private collection
(Reproduced in Introduction)
Donovan’s works do not simply echo nature’s structures, but
also evoke its infi nite variation, unfolding motion, and continuous
evolution. She stacks buttons in a cumulative process akin to the
formation of cave-dwelling stalagmites, and clusters bunches of
paper plates in what resembles underwater coral sponges. The
artist highlights details in each material to animate these forms:
The teetering columns of tiny plastic discs catch light in every
button hole. Her layered spheres of paper discs trap shadows
that shift along their scalloped edges as we pass.
104, 105
Untitled (Mylar), 2008
Mylar and hot glue
Courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery
“My work might appear ‘organic’ or ‘alive’ specifi cally
because my process mimics, in the most elementary
sense, basic systems of growth found in nature.”
Mylar’s pliable shiny surface allows Donovan to funnel light’s
refl ection and absorption in the folds of these spore-like
mounds. The work sprawls across the gallery fl oor, as if an
otherworldly metallic garden through which we navigate.
Donovan’s work activates our shifting perception of light
and space. Its placement choreographs our movement to
trigger the fl uctuating contrasts of dark shadow and bright
glare within its hollows.
106
In Moiré, oversized rolls of adding machine paper capture the
movement of shadows in the thin slits between their coils.
In Untitled (Mylar Tape), tiny silvered hoops cling to the walls,
refl ections bouncing between each ring. Although both
works harness a simple looping gesture that reacts with light,
Donovan achieves wide-ranging effects with their distinct
texture, density, and composition.
Moiré, 2005
Adding machine paper
Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
(Reproduced below)
Untitled (Mylar Tape), 2008
Polyester metallized fi lm tape
Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
107, 108
Nebulous, 2002
Scotch tape
Collection of Andrea and Marc Glimcher
Nebulous appears like a mist growing from the gallery fl oor. The
work’s title hints at the uncertain perceptual experience created
with none other than “invisible” and “magic” Scotch tape. Donovan
looped innumerable yards into the irregular airy weave that hovers
at our feet. Using such familiar material, she suggests both fl eet-
ing emergence and fragile presence, and the potential to visually
transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
109
Haze, 2005
Translucent plastic drinking straws
Collection of Tony Ganz
Following on 1960s artists’ “site-specifi c” installations that
relate directly to a fi xed location, Donovan explores a more
fl exible model she terms “site-responsive,” as her works expand
or contract to merge directly with the dimensions in each space
they are exhibited. Haze fi lls the given length of the gallery wall
with what resembles a rolling fogbank, but is in fact millions of
clear drinking straws. The entire volume is held in place by the
corners of the room, with the walls acting as a frame for the
work’s seemingly infi nite expanse.
“I see my work as perhaps having a more dynamic
relationship to the spaces where it is presented.”
110, 111
Donovan gathers Styrofoam cups in what resembles a swelling
mass materializing from the gallery ceiling. Each vessel
diffuses the light above into a soft glow of particles. Through
this material and its location, the installation evokes the buoyancy
of ethereal clouds or massive icebergs drifting overhead.
Untitled (Styrofoam Cups) exemplifi es how Donovan’s works
often embody paradox: it is dense yet light, brimming yet
hollow, literal yet poetic.
Untitled (Styrofoam Cups), 2004/2008
Styrofoam cups and glue
Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
112
In an opening cut through the gallery wall, Dovovan unspools
clear plastic sheeting in countless folds that compress under
its own weight. Viewed top to bottom, the work evolves from
loose curls to more compact layers as the weight builds. Walk-
ing along its length, we can compare how the work variously
fi lters the warm yellow artifi cial light on one side and the
cool hues of daylight on the opposite side. This fl ow of folds
and light also echoes our own motion as the plastic refl ects
the kaleidoscopic shuffl e of our passing shadows. With no
inherent limit to their infi nite variation and expansive depth,
Donovan’s works continue to push the boundaries of what a
sculptural “object” might be.
Untitled, 2008
Polyester fi lm
Courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
“Because the surfaces of my work do often shift
and follow the perspective of the viewer, there is a
perceptual movement that coincides with a person’s
physical movement within the gallery space.”
113
Biography
Tara Donovan was born 1969 in New York City. She studied at
the School of Visual Arts, New York; Corcoran College of Art and
Design, Washington, D.C.; and Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond. Her most recent solo exhibitions have been mounted
by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH (2003), Rice
University Art Gallery, Houston, TX (2003), the UCLA Hammer
Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2004), Museum of Contemporary
Art, San Diego, CA (2004), the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint
Louis, MO (2006), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, NY (2007). Donovan is recipient of numerous awards and
fellowships, including the inaugural 2005 Calder Foundation
Prize and a 2008 MacArthur Fellowship “genius” grant, which
acknowledges outstanding achievement “on the very edge of
discovery” and “new synthesis.”
Portrait of Tara Donovan at work, 2005. Photograph by Ellen Labenski
Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York
Talks
TARA DONOVAN IN CONVERSATION WITH
LAWRENCE WESCHLER
Tuesday, October 14, 7:30 pm
As Tara Donovan opens her fi rst major museum survey, the
Brooklyn-based sculptor discusses her work with Lawrence
Weschler, a writer known for making surprising connections
between seemingly disparate ideas and images.
Tickets: $12 general admission; $8 members, students,
and seniors
LUNCHTIME GALLERY TALKS New!Take a break to nourish your body and your mind. ICA curators
share their perspectives on working with today’s artists in a pro-
gram tailor-made for your lunch hour. Our speakers will provide
food for thought; the Water Café will take care of the rest.
Jen Mergel, Associate Curator
Thursday, October 16, 12 pm
Jen Mergel/Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator
Thursday, December 11, 12 pm
FREE with museum admission. Tickets are available fi rst-come,
fi rst-served one hour before the program. Ticket holders receive
a 10% discount at the Water Café. May not be combined with
any other offer.
Courses
LOOK HERE: INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY
SCULPTURE
Tuesdays, October 21 and 28, November 4, 11, and 18
11 am – 12:30 pm
Satisfy some of your curiosity about contemporary sculpture
through this fi ve-week program. Led by Randi Hopkins, this pro-
gram will offer diverse perspectives on what it means to make
and appreciate sculpture today.
Fee: $120; $100 members, students and seniors. Participants
receive a 10% discount on items in the Water Café and
ICA Store. May not be combined with any other offer.
Tara Donovan education programs are made possible by a gift from
Bruce and Robert Beal in honor of Barbara Krakow.
Families
PLAY DATE: BEYOND THE ARTIST’S HAND
Saturday, October 25, 10 am – 4 pm
Looking for an awe-inspiring adventure? Discover how artist Tara
Donovan uses everyday materials to create sculptures that imi-
tate natural forms even as they seem to defy the laws of nature.
Catch performances in the galleries by Underground Railway
Theater. For details log onto www.icaboston.org.
All activities are designed for children ages 5 – 12 and
adults to do together, and no prior registration is necessary.
Space is limited, and free tickets may be required for selected
theater events; these will be available fi rst-come, fi rst-served in
the lobby on the day of the event only.
This Play Date is sponsored by Nancy W. Adams.
Activities in the Bank of America Art Lab are made possible by
Generous support of ICA Youth Education is provided by JP Morgan Chase
Foundation, the Cabot Family Charitable Trust, and the Fuller Foundation.
In the ICA Store
Tara Donovan, a comprehensive monograph,
includes approximately 70 reproductions of
all of the artist’s works to date. The hard-
cover volume features an essay by exhibition
curators Nicholas Baume and Jen Mergel,
and an extended interview with the artist by
Lawrence Weschler.
The exhibition and publication were
generously supported by Chuck and
Kate Brizius and Barbara Lee.
Media Sponsor
THE INSTITUTE OF
CONTEMPORARY ART/BOSTON
100 Northern Avenue · Boston MA 02210
www.icaboston.org