IN REVIEW
ERIC NAUMAN:
A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL… TERRAFORMING PARADISE KRANZBERG ART CENTER
A quiet gallery comes to life as viewers enter, triggering a motion detector that sets off a chain reaction. Flat, pools of synthetic fabric inflate into bulbous cubes. One is green and one is yellow. The yellow cube appears to be wearing khaki pants… Cement figurines huddle in a line along the gallery’s windows, seeking shelter from the cube monsters. Eric Nauman’s conceptual installation uses tropes in popular video games such as Super Mario Brothers as an accessible entry-point to the exhibition’s concept. His screen-printed wallpaper recreates a classic role-playing game (RPG) experience. You know: the one where the sky is cyan and the coins are yellow and suspended in the air, and you, Mario, jump around, dodge enemies and collect coins? It’s hard not to hear the Mario theme song playing in your head. Nauman’s many fabrication techniques –including silicone mold-making, cement-casting, machine-sewing and screen-printing– pair well with his application of computer programming and robotics to fine art. The reactionary quality of the exhibition begs passersby on the sidewalk to enter Nauman’s world and invites them to stay. The sculptures are so like characters we know, but abstracted to the point of generality. SpongeBob SquarePants is easy to recognize in the big yellow cube, if you know him. Mr. Krabs is then not hard to imagine in the bloated, gold, glittering dollar-sign that spins, mounted onto a blood red ampersand (&) on a stack of yellow gold bricks, all rotating on a platform supported on the backs of four stationary cementfolk. Terraforming is a trope in science fiction in reference to transforming a fictional alien planet into a habitable environment for humans. Nauman’s exhibition succeeds as a conceptual installation at a time when new media and installation artwork has become the thing to do. The installation is centered around what the viewer can recognize immediately as a piece of traditional screen-printed canvas wall art, hung at traditional gallery height among the screen-printed wallpaper that transforms the space into a virtual world. 03 ALLTHEARTSTL.COM WINTER 2019/20
Eric Nauman, Golden Calf, (photo credit: Katryn Dierksen)
These canvases function in contrast to the wallpaper. The canvas begs, “Collect me!” while the floor-to-ceiling paper background asks, “Am I recyclable?” Everything in the exhibition is staged to challenge our concept of permanence. When IN REVIEW
the viewer leaves the gallery –confused or satisfied– the synthetic fabric cubes will deflate and the glittering gold icon will stop spinning with nobody to stimulate the computerized motion detectors. It’s impossible not to laugh at the idea that the cast cement people have anything to fear from the
