Monday, March 3, 2008

Mean World Blues

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Emily and I had some rare time to kill after an early party Saturday afternoon, and went to Chelsea to see Andro Wekua's
Blue Mirror at Barbara Gladstone. At the same time beautiful and utterly terrifying, the Georgian-born artist's collage, painting, sculpture, and film conveyed to me a sense of underlying, almost gutteral violence in consumer culture, as seen through the eyes of someone remembering their childhood. It's as if the person, represented by several life-size, incredibly life-like female figures, retreats ever inward as incomprehensible and scary things happen around her, and then inescapably replays them all...forever. It was one of the better shows we've seen in the past several months, and there was a palpable emotional reaction from viewers in the gallery.

Blue Mirror
runs March 1–29 at Gladstone Gallery, 515 W 24th Street between 10th & 11th. More info and images here.

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