THE ALDRICH PRESENTS ROBERT LAZZARINI: GUNS AND KNIVES
Artist Robert Lazzarini will continue his exploration of the reconfiguration of objects in Guns and Knivesat The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. This exhibition marks Lazzarini's most ambitious manipulation of gallery space to date, and will remain on view through September 13, 2009.
The installation will feature all new work, including five .38 Smith and Wesson Model 10 revolvers and a cluster of kitchen knives, addressing repetition of the single object and variation within the group. Each sculpture on display is built from actual materials of functioning weapons, however they have been mathematically distorted in so many different directions that there is no standard perspective.
Lazzarini has augmented The Aldrich's Leir Galley by subjecting the space to subtle wall transformations using compound planar and sine-wave distortions. He activates not only the sculptural figures, but also the visual ground on which they are presented, emphasizing the dislocation of the viewer within the space. The lighting in the gallery reduces shadows and further alters the viewer's perception of dimension.
This body of work is a meditation on fear and violence, contrasting reductive display with charged subject matter and its inherent rational and irrational aspects. Lazzarini says, "The work comes out of my thoughts on murder and the corporeal implications of these particular objects."
Aldrich director and exhibition curator Harry Philbrick comments, "As there is no normative point of view, the installation forces viewers to move around the objects within the space, and to observe firearms, sometimes for the first time, in an unusual way. For instance, for a viewer to observe a revolver as they imagine it in their mind's eye, they might have to position themselves so that they are forced to look directly down the barrel of the gun. This contributes to the physical apprehension of the viewer in confronting the object."
Robert Lazzarini will give a gallery talk about Guns and Knives at Behind the Scenes, a members-only private preview, on Friday, February 27, 2009, from 6:30 to 8 pm at the Museum.
Artist Robert Lazzarini will continue his exploration of the reconfiguration of objects in Guns and Knivesat The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. This exhibition marks Lazzarini's most ambitious manipulation of gallery space to date, and will remain on view through September 13, 2009.
The installation will feature all new work, including five .38 Smith and Wesson Model 10 revolvers and a cluster of kitchen knives, addressing repetition of the single object and variation within the group. Each sculpture on display is built from actual materials of functioning weapons, however they have been mathematically distorted in so many different directions that there is no standard perspective.
Lazzarini has augmented The Aldrich's Leir Galley by subjecting the space to subtle wall transformations using compound planar and sine-wave distortions. He activates not only the sculptural figures, but also the visual ground on which they are presented, emphasizing the dislocation of the viewer within the space. The lighting in the gallery reduces shadows and further alters the viewer's perception of dimension.
This body of work is a meditation on fear and violence, contrasting reductive display with charged subject matter and its inherent rational and irrational aspects. Lazzarini says, "The work comes out of my thoughts on murder and the corporeal implications of these particular objects."
Aldrich director and exhibition curator Harry Philbrick comments, "As there is no normative point of view, the installation forces viewers to move around the objects within the space, and to observe firearms, sometimes for the first time, in an unusual way. For instance, for a viewer to observe a revolver as they imagine it in their mind's eye, they might have to position themselves so that they are forced to look directly down the barrel of the gun. This contributes to the physical apprehension of the viewer in confronting the object."
Robert Lazzarini will give a gallery talk about Guns and Knives at Behind the Scenes, a members-only private preview, on Friday, February 27, 2009, from 6:30 to 8 pm at the Museum.
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