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Overall Installati
"Beginning and ending (version 2)" 2010, 34 x 17 x 17.5 in. Earthenwar
"Beginning and Ending Version II and III" (left) and "For You Only" (right)
Temperance! By Ander Ruhwald
Feb. 11-Mar. 13, 2010
"The world of the objects of old seems like a theatre of cruelty and instinctual drives in comparison with the formal neutrality and prophylactic 'whiteness' of our perfect functional objects. Thus the handle of the flatiron gradually diminishes as it undergoes 'contouring' - the term is typical in its superficiality and abstractness; increasingly it suggests the very absence of gesture, and carried to its logical extreme this handle will no longer be manual - merely manipulable. At that point, the perfecting of the form will have relegated man to a pure contemplation of his power " — Jean Baudrillard, from The System of Objects
The Anders Ruhwald solo exhibition “Temperance!” at the Miyako Yoshinaga gallery in Chelsea is the continuance of the artist’s 10 year fascination with the utility, or lack there of, of common household objects and socially identifiable shapes. His glazed ceramic sculptures, often made in uniform colors, are meant to be imposing. Outlines are blurred, shapes and common figures distorted, textures anything but smooth (a direct confrontation of the “smooth” quality we expect of ceramic sculpture). Ruhwald’s figures literally chisel away at his audience’s normative expectation about what the object should “be,” and what it is meant to “do.”
The gallery was filled with distorted domestic objects, few but nevertheless impactful. They were arranged as if they were obstacles not only to our individual movement, but also to our cogent understanding of what, exactly, we were supposed to be looking at. I imagine Ruhwald would suggest that we aren’t really “supposed” to be looking at anything, as the basis of the supposition lies somewhere outside of the distinct personal experience. Our expectations of shape, form and figure are ingrained in our subconscious and we learn, rather than simply "know" how to interpret our surroundings. As the artist imposes upon us with his massive ceramic structures, so does society impose upon us its collective vision of what “is,” or reality, and what “should do,” or utility.
Ruhwald directly challenges these commonly held views of domestic life, including the way that we move about our homes, decorate our rooms and “use” mundane objects . Indeed, “The Shades About to Fall,” a line of windowpanes hung from the ceiling by delicate strings, were sculpted as a division of the gallery space, a check to the audience’s movement and a tangible representation of restraint. As each pane progressed, the colors subtly shifted, twisting and turning in an imperceptible wind.
Two chairs were mounted on the wall perpendicular to the shades, supported by a single, bright orange tack; a “television” sat at an awkward angle on the floor, in lugubrious acknowledgement of the objects above. Directly across from the shades, and intersecting the studio space between the “living room” and the entrance, two oversize yellow vases, too large to sit atop an Upper East Side coffee table and with handles far too small to grasp, sat upon a prominent wooden platform. As I stood back at the entrance, I was struck by how this almost comical arrangement perfectly typified Ruhwald’s intent, to challenge the “nominative role certain objects play in our daily lives.”
Though the gallery was a very small and narrow space, and though the objects were few from a numerical standpoint, an audience member will not find that he or she is necessarily limited by the size of the gallery, or the number of ceramic figures. Instead, he or she can expect to feel small themselves-- travelers lost in Ruhwald’s artistic vision without a firm understanding of where they are, what they should be doing, or where, really, the exit is.
In a city constructed according to the virtues of easy navigation, it's uncanny to experience disorientation. And the impression Ruhwald left upon me was not as easily shaken as the rain that clung to my umbrella. I left the gallery, and returned to life, walking the course to the subway, the station that never failed to be there, as it ever was-- only a few steps away but, for the moment, worlds apart -- Natalie Fasano
For more information please visit: MIYAKO YOSHINAGA art prospects
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