January 24, 2004 - February 21, 2004
Jack Risley
New Sculptures
Postmasters Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibition of new sculptures by Jack Risley. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York in six years.
Continuing his exploration of form and function through dynamic and suggestively utilitarian constructions, Risley combines familiar objects with abstract volumes and unorthodox materials. The four large-scale sculptures in this exhibition constitute varying states of object-hood from plopped and propped, to rolling and dangling. Each piece is built around a recognizable element: a scaffold, a bicycle, a wheeled garbage can, and an overhead track. Not content to rest in one spot, each sculpture contains its own means of mobility and vicarious action.
‘Whoo Hoo’ co-opts the service of a portable scaffold in support of an aluminum and fabric structure. The colors used in the piece are ‘Hoo Whee’ orange and ‘Whoa Ho’ green. With its vivid color, partially inflated volumes and vertical extension wheel, ‘Whoo Hoo’ is prepared and ready to go.
‘Over and Out’ circulates on an overhead track installed throughout
both gallery spaces. The wall dividing the two rooms has been cut so the sculpture
can travel freely. The roving unit houses five photographic tripods poised to
capture errant activity below. During moments of inactivity, the roving unit
nests high up in its “dock.”
The blue plastic trash container of ‘Student Driver’ is moored within
a sea of gray nylon canvas. Adrift on the gallery floor, “Student Driver” is
a collection wrong turns and dead-ends. Held captive in a swath of textile,
the trash bin remains framed, ready for release into a landscape of detritus.
In “Spokesmodel” a 60 pound orange bicycle provides ballast for a kit made of oversized, intersecting cardboard struts and planes. Unwieldy and cumbersome, ‘Spokesmodel’ teeters between wrong-headed defiance and imminent collapse.