Polly Apfelbaum
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
44 East 6th Street,
Cincinnati, Ohio
513 345 8400
6 December 2003
to 29 February 2004
By AMBER
FOGEL
(installation view
at ICA, Philadephia) Polly Apfelbaum showing
Reckless 1998 individually cut pieces of synthetic stretch velvet,
fabric dye
dimensions variable approximately 25 x 25 feet; Compulsory
Figures
1996 synthetic velvet dimensions variable, approximately 26 x 36 feet;
and Oblong 2003, wallpaper: Œcvinyl vutek
The "feminine"
used to be equated with fragility, delicacy, and quiet refinement. Polly
Apfelbaum's works are all of these things while also revealing the artist's
capacity to subvert such equations and redefine "women's work."
Her midcareer survey curated
by Claudia Gould and Ingrid Schaffner and organized by the Institute
for Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. Currently to be seen
at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, the exhibition showcases
a remarkable range of material in works from the late 1980s to the present,
from Daisy Chain (1989/2003) in identical 8 ½-foot rectangles
made up of wooden shamrocks, flowers and club shapes to her latest contribution,
Oblong (2003), an installation of wallpaper covered with one-inch ovals
in a repeating sequence of rainbow colors.
But it is Apfelbaum's "fallen
paintings" that most captivate attention. These pieces, velvety
fabric dyed with blotches of vibrant color, ooze across the first floor
of the exhibition. Painstakingly pieced together by hand, their distinct
patterning is similar to a quilt. Even the more chaotic Reckless, or
Split (both 1998) have an organic rhythm that suggests Mother Nature
had a hand in their creation. With titles like Bubbles and Blossom,
Apfelbaum's work is playful, girlish and feminine with a capital "F."
But "feminine"
as a concept encompasses so much more than smooth fabrics, handiwork
and delicacy. To be feminine can also mean sensual, sexual and sly.
It begets intelligence and strength. It means pushing the boundaries
of one's position and being-or at least trying to be-all things to all
people.
To convey these ideas successfully,
Apfelbaum indiscriminately pulls from, questions and builds on the traditions
of postwar abstraction: the drippings of Pollock, the stained effects
of Frankenthaler and Louis, the repetition and serialization of minimalism.
Apfelbaum tears down the modalities of media. She calls her floor pieces
"fallen paintings", but their structures and placement are
akin to sculpture, while her process is more like printmaking. In this,
it is as if Apfelbaum has created work that really is all things to
all people.
Apfelbaum injects into traditional
abstraction materials, shapes and words that have personal and emotional
connotations. Pocketful of Posies (1990) is a splotch of cartoonish,
1960s-inspired flower cutouts made of steel and placed in a group on
the gallery floor. The material is minimalist; it's cold and manufactured.
But the flower shapes provide the organic element that makes the material
warm, the shapely curves prominent making the piece playful and sexy;
more Austin Powers than Carl Andre.
This balancing of the playful
and the serious is a big part of what makes Apfelbaum's work so interesting.
The seriousness comes from her technical skill, the careful choice of
materials, and her arrangement of parts to create a comprehensive whole
with many meanings. The playfulness often comes from the shapes she
chooses and punning titles.
Title Page (2003) is installation
wallpaper that lists in rainbow colors titles of some of Apfelbaum's
works. The enormity of this display - the wall is two stories high and
about twenty feet long - forces you to take it seriously, to view it
as a list of accomplishments or rolling credits. (This image is reproduced
on the inside cover of the exhibition catalogue). But the playful nature
of the titles like "Lady and the Tramp" and their cotton candy
colors beg us not to take anything too seriously and remind us that
even intelligent art is, to some degree, decorative.
