March 16, 2010
In "Linear Obscurity," M. Pravat and Heeseop Yoon create
elegant clutter. Both artists use a flurry of lines to suggest layered
architectural spaces: The New Delhi-based Pravat fashions neat ground
plans that are obscured by overlaid abstractions, and Yoon, who lives in
New York, manipulates Mylar, tape, and ink drawings into dense surfaces
evoking her perception of crowded places. The total effect is visually
harmonious, if conceptually diverse.
While the lines and shapes in Pravat's "Still
Underconstruction" series (all works cited, 2009) appear as formal
structures, Yoon's built-up surfaces hint at real things underneath
and unearthed. Indeed, titles like Storages and Dad's Basement remind
viewers of the often packed places hidden within our lives, and the
freehand, cumulative-construction feel of these
works--iterating the memory of abandoned objects in such
spaces--attests to their potential for chaos and ambiguity.
Most dramatically, Yoon's Junkshop, a large-scale
masking-tape-on-Mylar piece, highlights the organic and individualized
qualities of her layered lines, having been adapted specifically to the
architecture of Bose Pacia's fresh Dumbo space. The work frames the
gallery and the exhibition, while--with a touch of
irony--asking viewers to redraw their lines of perception about
what we see and how we remember.
-Beth Citron
http://artforum.com/new.php?pn=archive&id=25118
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