|
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
|
|
|
+---
|
|
|
+date_one_day: '07-12-2019 16:30'
|
|
|
+title: 'SARA BERMAN Matter out of Place'
|
|
|
+media_order: 'Installation Sara Berman.jpg,Installation Sara Berman(1).jpg,Sara Berman, Lint Sweater #37, 2018.jpg,Sara Berman, Lint Sweater #38, 2018.jpg,Sara Berman, Lint Sweater #40, 2018.jpg'
|
|
|
+show_sidebar: false
|
|
|
+aura:
|
|
|
+ pagetype: website
|
|
|
+---
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+"It is something rejected from which one does not part, from which one
|
|
|
+does not protect oneself as from an object. (...) It is thus not lack of
|
|
|
+cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity,
|
|
|
+system, order."
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+- Julia Kristeva
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+There is an unprecedented struggle for unity and mutuality in this epoch of
|
|
|
+singularity and individualism. The biblical precedes these secular ideals in
|
|
|
+the myth of Babel, with its human element inevitably failing into disparity,
|
|
|
+not just of language but also of socio-cultural context for its collective
|
|
|
+ambitions would become its primary sin. Surrounded by divergent,
|
|
|
+fluctuating value systems, Sara Berman has selected the lowest common
|
|
|
+denominator of mankind as the focal point of her work, as an uncanny,
|
|
|
+debased catalyser in her line of artistic inquiry: 'waste'. A propensity for
|
|
|
+textiles has perhaps indicated Berman in the direction of lint, of drying
|
|
|
+machine filters, which despite her minimal intervention, do not draw one
|
|
|
+immediately towards the abject nature of the piece, but rather ensue an
|
|
|
+auratic dialogue guided by their anthropomorphic quality and vivid
|
|
|
+stratigraphy. This 'matter out of place', waste in the form of the work of
|
|
|
+art (the commodity par excellence) comes to embody the term derived from
|
|
|
+Mary Douglas's seminal study on dirt, not just literally, but through the
|
|
|
+very internal logic of the works. Not only are the fabric remnants
|
|
|
+dislocated from their status as superfluous objects, framed and exhibited
|
|
|
+within the gallery space, but in her attempt to generate discourse Berman
|
|
|
+has created an art object resistant and adhering to any nomenclature, while
|
|
|
+circumventing any positive or negative valences. The works find
|
|
|
+themselves in a latent state; perhaps even one of paradox for an initial
|
|
|
+reaction might contravene a subsequent one upon finding out the medium.
|
|
|
+From breaking her own dyer at home, to her latter exploration of London
|
|
|
+drycleaners, from the first attempts of gathering the lint in large bags to
|
|
|
+then attaching it to furniture, Berman has redacted her process of making
|
|
|
+to reduce the infliction of her will upon the work as much as possible. This
|
|
|
+however has not created a ready-made, for the immediacy of deskilling is
|
|
|
+replaced by a careful subtraction, while the unique makeup of the works
|
|
|
+would have them tangential to artisanship. Berman selects the lints from
|
|
|
+the filters (very few of which present this distinctive layering) and stiches
|
|
|
+them to pieces of linen without seeking precision. There is an
|
|
|
+inexhaustible web of socio-economic relations, which each wool fibre or
|
|
|
+hair follicle has traversed and can further generate through their
|
|
|
+repurposing in the lint figures. It is perhaps not coincidental that some of
|
|
|
+these should have a convex, circular geometry, occurring in the inferior
|
|
|
+parts evoking thus the maternal or the fertile. The human dimension of the
|
|
|
+works would have it operate like an artefact, even more so now that the
|
|
|
+pieces are exhibited framed for the first time, an equalizing procedure to
|
|
|
+stress their organic, biological aspect. There is only an illusion of
|
|
|
+uniformity as each work is entirely distinct in its 'genetic composition'
|
|
|
+while any separation occurs as an auxiliary, as our own imposed
|
|
|
+estrangement from it. Berman has removed the glass dividing the viewer
|
|
|
+from the 'abject', facilitating either confrontation or familiarization, in
|
|
|
+either circumstance permitting a direct exchange. The rug outside invites
|
|
|
+one into the gallery space while simultaneously deconstructing its
|
|
|
+boundary, playing into the idea of domesticity as a percept for belonging
|
|
|
+and safety while including the nomadic. Berman's inquiry extends into the
|
|
|
+exterior realm, the question remains, is it art, a handful of hair and lint
|
|
|
+from the local drycleaners or simply matter... out of place?
|
|
|
+Smaranda Ciubotaru
|