Marta Chilindron
GEO
Point of Contact Gallery Staff Sara Felice Managing Associate Director Natalie McGrath Assistant Director Rainer Wehner Preparator Anthony White Gallery Assistant Weisi Liu Budget and Finance Administrator Tere Paniagua Executive Director of Cultural Engagement
All images courtesy of Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York Cover Image: Hollow Mobius (Yellow), 2016, Acrylic and hinges. 15ž x 26 x 25⅜ in.
point of contact
punto de contacto
Marta Chilindron
GEO
November 8, 2018 - January 25, 2019 This exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of The College of Arts and Sciences, and the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University.
About the Artist Point of Contact presents a selection of both contrasting and complimentary works by Marta Chilindron. Chilindron’s works range from the geometrically abstract to the organic and the environmental. While at first glance these aesthetic styles appear to be seemingly contradictory, this exhibition aims to highlight the common ground—the Point of Contact— where the works’ shared formal elements emerge.
9 Trapezoids, 2013, Acrylic and hinges. 30 x 72 in.
9 Trapezoids, 2014, Acrylic and hinges. 23½ x 27 in.
Cube 12 (Multicolor), 2014, Acrylic and hinges. Closed: 12 x 12 x 12 in.
Tatiana Flores - Courtesy of Art Nexus Magazine (Number 84, Volume 11, 2012) Among the sculptures describing nature, Cloud (2009) departs from the planar composition of the others. Hanging from the ceiling, it hinges in places while allowing empty space to penetrate in others, managing to capture the immateriality of the cloud with the most unexpected of materials. Cloud, 2009, Acrylic and hinges. 56 x 72 in.
EXPAND//FOLD//COLLAPSE//SCULPTURES BY MARTA CHILINDRON Essay by Susanna V. Temkin, Institute of Fine Arts NYU The Great Hall Exhibitions (Nov. 2014) Artist Marta Chilindron creates manipulable sculptures that elegantly reveal the constancy of change. Constructed from acrylic and other plastics-based materials, Chilindron’s artworks are charged with transformative potential. Connected by hinges, the various component panels of her sculptures are subject to movement. When activated by the viewer, the works change shape, shift from two to three dimensions, and grow and contract in space. These kinetic transformations are magnified by chromatic variations caused by the effects of light on the sculptures’ transparent and colored surfaces. The resulting changes reflect the instability of perception and form, and underlie the artist’s investigations into the dynamic nature of life. According to Chilindron, her work is the visual expression of her search “for the engine of life; what keeps everything together and functioning. I use movement because it implies instability and illustrates the continuous change of our uncertain realities.”
Hollow Spiral (Black), 2016, Acrylic and hinges. 36 x 60 x 72 in.
Water, 2011, Twin wall polycarbonate. Closed: 35½ x 54½ x 14 in.
“Constructions: Marta Chilindron” by Berta Sichel, Courtesy of Arte al Dia International Magazine (Issue 139 May - June 2012)
The question of perception and reality is more often invoked when an artist is working with digital media which employs movement. Chilindron’s strategies imply “instability” and “illustrate the continuous change in our uncertain reality.” Within the context of media, the distinctions between what is natural and what is not, “have thankfully disappeared” and viewers are consistently intrigued by the boundaries between different levels of reality and image, as Ron Burnett wrote in the book How Images Think.Yet, there is no electronic media in these 4-dimensional Constructions-a denomination for her work she prefers to “sculptures.” Maybe they can be called environments, which when displayed in the gallery fills the space with shapes, forms, light and make the viewer question their meaning, and as Burnett said, look
for the margins of perception and reality. The link between perception/reality acquires some unusual nuances since what the viewer sees always expresses and evokes something else. As with dreams, or presence and absence, her constructions are not explicit. Here her constructions are inspired by the elements of nature: fire, water, and so on. She wants the the viewer to be immersed and surrounded by the work. The intention to create fake nature, a fake reality which could be manipulated and controlled. The pieces are based on geometric shapes, which reduces them to simpler and easier to understand forms. They create a simplified reality that we can all recognize and agree on.
Fire, 2011, Twin wall polycarbonate. Closed: 57ž x 47 x 17 in.
Sliding Square, 2015, Acrylic. 18 x 18 x 3 in.
Sliding Circle, 2015, Acrylic. 18 x 18 x 3 in.
MARTA CHILINDRON b. 1951, Buenos Aires, Argentina – lives in New York City since 1969
From her early veristic paintings to her contemporary sculptural installations, Chilindron has always created art which explores perspectival, temporal and spatial relationships. In the 1990s, the artist began experimenting with furniture forms, altering their shape to reflect her point of view in relation to the physical. From these works emerged Chilindron’s collapsible sculptures, which can be opened and closed to alternate between flat, abstract compositions and fully three-dimensional forms. Since 2000, the artist has worked in transparent and color acrylics, creating manipulable objects which change shape and color. In 2010, Chilindron was invited to create a public installation as part of the Fokus Lodz Biennale in Poland, and her most recent sculptures are currently featured as a special project at the Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) in Long Beach, California. Chilindron’s artworks are included in the collections of the Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas; El Museo del Barrio, New York; CIFO, Miami; Banco do Spiritu Santo, Portugal; the State University of New York; Fonds D’Art Contemporain de Ville de Geneve, Switzerland, and private collections internationally.
Marta Chilindron with Ring 2013, Arcylic and hinges. 26½ diameter
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