powders, a phial, and a paper book
ON the ninth of January, now four days ago, I received by the evening delivery a Henry Jekyll. I was a good deal surprised by this; for we were by no means in the habit could imagine nothing in our intercourse that should justify formality of registration. T “10th December, 18—
“DEAR LANYON, You are one of my oldest friends; and although we may have d in our affection. There was never a day when, if you had said to me, ‘Jekyll, my life, my you. Lanyon, my life, my honour my reason, are all at your mercy; if you fail me to-nig thing dishonourable to grant. Judge for yourself. “I want you to postpone all other engagements for to-night—ay, even if you were actually at the door; and with this letter in your hand for consultation, to drive straigh with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet is then to be forced: and you are to go in alone to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the fourth drawer from the top or (whi a morbid fear of misdirecting you; but even if I am in error, you may know the right d beg of you to carry back with you to Cavendish Square exactly as it stands. “That is the first part of the service: now for the second. You should be back, if yo amount of margin, not only in the fear of one of those obstacles that can neither be prev for what will then remain to do. At midnight, then, I have to ask you to be alone in your himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will have brought w completely. Five minutes afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have u one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience wit “Confident as I am that you will not trifle with this appeal, my heart sinks and m a strange place, labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can exaggerate, an like a story that is told. Serve me, my dear Lanyon, and save Your friend, H. J.”
“P. S. I had already sealed this up when a fresh terror struck upon my soul. It is po morrow morning. In that case, dear Lanyon, do my errand when it shall be most conve It may then already be too late; and if that night passes without event, you will know
a registered envelope, addressed in the hand of my colleague and old school-companion, t of correspondence; I had seen the man, dined with him, indeed, the night before; and I The contents increased my wonder; for this is how the letter ran:
differed at times on scientific questions, I cannot remember, at least on my side, any break y honour, my reason, depend upon you,’ I would not have sacrificed my left hand to help ght I am lost. You might suppose, after this preface, that I am going to ask you for some-
e summoned to the bedside of an emperor; to take a cab, unless your carriage should be ht to my house. Poole, my butler, has his orders; you will find, him waiting your arrival e; to open the glazed press (letter E) on the left hand, breaking the lock if it be shut; and ich is the same thing) the third from the bottom. In my extreme distress of wind, I have drawer by its contents: some powders, a phial and a paper book. This drawer I
ou set out at once on the receipt of this, long before midnight; but I will leave you that vented nor foreseen, but because an hour when your servants are in bed is to be preferred r consulting-room, to admit with your own hand into the house a man who will present with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of th my death or the shipwreck of my reason. my hand trembles at the bare thought of such a possibility. Think of me at this hour, in nd yet well aware that, if you will but punctually serve me, my troubles will roll away
ossible that the postoffice may fail me, and this letter not come into your hands until toenient for you in the course of the day; and once more expect my messenger at midnight. that you have seen the last of Henry Jekyll.�
* Powders, a phial and a paper book: Conduits for dramatic physical change, these elements were used by the titular characters in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to transform into one another.
Carl Andre / Alwar Balasubramaniam / Talia Chetrit Jeff Elrod / Ethan Greenbaum / Patrick Hill Vlatka Horvat / Martin Kline / Victor Pasmore Bruce Robbins / David Rodriguez Caballero / Keith Sonnier
MARCH 3 - APRIL 2, 2011 545 WEST 25TH STREET NEW YORK , NEW YORK 10001 MARLBOROUGHGALLERY.COM
Ethan Greenbaum
Untitled, 2010 Concrete blocks, plasticine, acrylic medium 26 x 342 x 6 in., 66 x 894.1 x 15.2 cm
Keith Sonnier
Wall Slash II, 1988 Aluminum and neon 97 x 157 x 12 in., 246.4 x 398.8 x 30.5 cm
Talia Chetrit
Metal Drawing, 2010 Silver gelatin print 14 x 11 in. 35.4 x 27.8 cm Drawing on Drawing, 2010 Silver gelatin print 14 x 11 in. 35.4 x 27.8 cm Drawing on Skin, 2010 Silver gelatin print 14 x 11 in. 35.4 x 27.8 cm
David Rodriguez Caballero
10.Enero.2010 – A, 2010 Enamel on aluminum 53 1/2 x 39 3/8 x 4 in., 136 x 100 x 10 cm
22.Mayo.2009, 2009 Enamel on aluminum 39 3/8 x 47 1/4 x 11 3/4 in., 100 x 120 x 30 cm 01.Diciembre.2010, 2010 Enamel on aluminum 37 1/2 x 41 x 50 3/4 in., 95 x 104 x 129 cm
Vlatka Horvat
Ladder, 2009 Modified welded steel ladder 2 parts, each: 72 x 10 x 11 1/4 in., 182.9 x 25.4 x 28.6 cm
Patrick Hill
Notice, 2010 White Carrara marble, envelopes, wood and dye 17 x 36 x 42 in., 43.2 x 91.4 x 106.7 cm
Jeff Elrod
Orange Ramparts, 2006 Acrylic on canvas 74 x 62 in., 188 x 157.5 cm
Bruce Robbins
Hybrid (Blue Kiss), 2003-04 Mixed media 109 1/2 x 32 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.
A Line from the Tune of Swanee River, 1987 Paint on canvas and board 48 x 48 in., 121.9 x 121.9 cm Untitled, 1988 Paint on board 86 x 48 in., 218.44 x 121.92 cm.
Victor Pasmore
Alwar Balasubramaniam
Limited from Unlimited, 1999 Silkscreen, velvet powder, and silicon, ed. of 7 13 x 40 in., 33 x 78.5 cm
Martin Kline
Metier, 2008 Encaustic on panel 50 x 30 in., 127 x 76.2 cm
Epiphany, 2008 Encaustic on panel 62 x 42 in., 157.5 x 106.7 cm
Carl Andre Pentaherm, 1997 Eastern pine, 5 units each: 36 x 12 x 12 in., 1.4 x 30.4 x 30.4 cm overall: 36 x 36 x 36 in., 91.4 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm
PRESS RELEASE
POWDERS, A PHIAL, AND A PAPER BOOK The Directors of Marlborough Chelsea are pleased to announce Powders, a Phial and a Paper Book, an exhibition of twelve artists whose work alters the physical identity of their materials through innovative technical and conceptual processes. The show will open with a reception from six to eight in the evening on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011, and will be on view through April 2nd, at 545 West 25th Street. Borrowed from Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the ingredients “powders, a phial and a paper book” are those used by the titular characters in their many physical transformations, though the specific nature of each is never further revealed. The objects and elements used by the artists in this exhibition have also undergone a myriad of transformations, while their processes maintain the same degree of ambiguity. In Notice, 2010, Patrick Hill seemingly impales two slabs of Carrara marble with a small stack of ordinary envelopes. Ethan Greenbaum’s site-specific installation, Untitled, 2011, masks the cold, dense nature of concrete cinderblocks by playfully integrating multi-colored plasticine between each block. David Rodriguez Caballero similarly lightens the industrial character of aluminum in his subtle wall reliefs painted with brushed enamel surfaces, entitled 22.Mayo.2009, 01.Diciembre.2010 and 10.Enero.2010-A. Orange Ramparts, 2006, a quintessential example of Jeff Elrod’s “Analog” paintings, is a meticulously rendered acrylic on canvas representation of a freeform drawing originally created by the artist using a rudimentary computer graphics program. Talia Chetrit’s suite of three silver gelatin prints share a similar technological aesthetic as she draws in space using an array of indistinct objects. In Limited from Unlimited, a work on paper from 1999 by the acclaimed contemporary Indian artist Alwar Balasubramaniam, fingerprints are subtly given unique character through the his use of velvet powder and silicon in the silkscreen process. Vlatka Horvat’s Ladder, 2009 cleverly consists of one aluminum ladder, split in two, installed on opposite sides of the same gallery wall as if it is actively penetrating the wall. In Wall Slash II, 1988, an iconic work by Keith Sonnier included in the artist’s 1989 Hirshhorn Museum exhibition, a complex composition of neon lights and aluminum takes on an imposingly human form. Seminal works by Martin Kline, Bruce Robbins, Victor Pasmore and Carl Andre will also be included in the exhibition. Kline’s monochromatic Epiphany, 2008 is a signature example of the artist’s encaustic reliefs where the material grows toward the center as if by an unseen gravitational pull. In the work of Bruce Robbins, gesturally rendered layers of gesso, enamel and acrylic highlight the formal elements of the varying media on which they’re applied. The signature paintings A Line from the Tune of Swanee River, 1987 and Untitled, 1988 by Victor Pasmore, a towering figure in the early years of British Abstract Art, demonstrate the artist’s innovative framing of an abstract composition using both canvas and wood. And Carl Andre’s Pentehearn from 1997 is an iconic example of a work composed of recontextualized industrial materials that has characterized the artist’s unwavering minimal explorations over the past six decades.
ON the ninth of January, now four days ago, I received by the evening delivery a Henry Jekyll. I was a good deal surprised by this; for we were by no means in the habit could imagine nothing in our intercourse that should justify formality of registration. T “10th December, 18—
“DEAR LANYON, You are one of my oldest friends; and although we may have d in our affection. There was never a day when, if you had said to me, ‘Jekyll, my life, my you. Lanyon, my life, my honour my reason, are all at your mercy; if you fail me to-nig thing dishonourable to grant. Judge for yourself. “I want you to postpone all other engagements for to-night—ay, even if you were actually at the door; and with this letter in your hand for consultation, to drive straigh with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet is then to be forced: and you are to go in alone to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the fourth drawer from the top or (whi a morbid fear of misdirecting you; but even if I am in error, you may know the right d beg of you to carry back with you to Cavendish Square exactly as it stands. “That is the first part of the service: now for the second. You should be back, if yo amount of margin, not only in the fear of one of those obstacles that can neither be prev for what will then remain to do. At midnight, then, I have to ask you to be alone in your himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will have brought w completely. Five minutes afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have u one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience wit “Confident as I am that you will not trifle with this appeal, my heart sinks and m a strange place, labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can exaggerate, an like a story that is told. Serve me, my dear Lanyon, and save Your friend, H. J.”
“P. S. I had already sealed this up when a fresh terror struck upon my soul. It is po morrow morning. In that case, dear Lanyon, do my errand when it shall be most conve It may then already be too late; and if that night passes without event, you will know
a registered envelope, addressed in the hand of my colleague and old school-companion, t of correspondence; I had seen the man, dined with him, indeed, the night before; and I The contents increased my wonder; for this is how the letter ran:
differed at times on scientific questions, I cannot remember, at least on my side, any break y honour, my reason, depend upon you,’ I would not have sacrificed my left hand to help ght I am lost. You might suppose, after this preface, that I am going to ask you for some-
e summoned to the bedside of an emperor; to take a cab, unless your carriage should be ht to my house. Poole, my butler, has his orders; you will find, him waiting your arrival e; to open the glazed press (letter E) on the left hand, breaking the lock if it be shut; and ich is the same thing) the third from the bottom. In my extreme distress of wind, I have drawer by its contents: some powders, a phial and a paper book. This drawer I
ou set out at once on the receipt of this, long before midnight; but I will leave you that vented nor foreseen, but because an hour when your servants are in bed is to be preferred r consulting-room, to admit with your own hand into the house a man who will present with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of th my death or the shipwreck of my reason. my hand trembles at the bare thought of such a possibility. Think of me at this hour, in nd yet well aware that, if you will but punctually serve me, my troubles will roll away
ossible that the postoffice may fail me, and this letter not come into your hands until toenient for you in the course of the day; and once more expect my messenger at midnight. that you have seen the last of Henry Jekyll.�