Gustavo Godoy
wexner center for the arts
Introduction
This presentation of Gustavo Godoy’s Fast-formal Object: Flayed White is part of Six Solos a suite of six discrete exhibitions each featuring the work of a rising international artist. Since its inception in 1989, the Wexner Center has embraced a strong commitment to the work of younger artists engaged in pushing their practice in new directions. For many of the Six Solos artists, this marks their first solo exhibition in a U.S. museum, and for all of them, their presentation at the Wex offers a welcome chance to introduce their work to broad and diverse new audiences. Each artist has taken the center’s invitation as an incentive to broaden their scope of address and expand their already ambitious repertoire of forms and ideas. We believe that all six artists are on the cusp of greater achievement and renown, and we are particularly pleased to be able to include them in the programs and festivities marking our 21st anniversary in November 2010. As we now leave adolescence behind, we’ve undoubtedly gained a modicum of professional and institutional maturity, but Six Solos remains true to the energetic, irreverent spirit of artistic exploration and discovery that has marked the Wexner Center throughout its first two decades. That sensibility will certainly remain embedded in our DNA for years to come. Sherri Geldin, Director Christopher Bedford, Chief Curator of Exhibitions Wexner Center for the Arts The Ohio State University
COVER, OVERLEAF, AND FACING
Fast-formal Object: Flayed White, 2010 Plywood, metal, paint, and mixed media Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
Climbing Home Katy M. Reis
Aglow with seemingly haphazard light fixtures
its sheer size. All of the sculptures Godoy terms
and reflective vinyl flooring, Gustavo Godoy’s
Fast-formal Objects exude this same ebb and flow
monumental sculpture Fast-formal Object: Flayed
of stability (it is particularly evident in the earlier
White is at once looming and inviting. This site-
works, which recall a freeze-frame image of a
responsive construction—built to completely
recent explosion or a flurry of hurried gestures),
fill one of the Wexner Center’s galleries—elicits
yet the scale and the materials seem to steady
references to structures as familiar as a child’s
each work as a grounded object.
tree house and as esoteric as the sculptural environments German artist Kurt Schwitters called Merzbau. The concept of home, however,
“Home” can suggest psychological stability and vulnerability as well. Ideally, the home is where the two coincide, in a safe
functions as a starting point for a variety of
place whose inhabitants enjoy the intimacy of
interpretations of this project, and by extension,
vulnerability. Alternatively, of course, a home
of Godoy’s recent Fast-formal Objects more
generally. Homes can represent both stability and
can feel completely unguarded and susceptible to destruction by physical or emotional
vulnerability, concepts that Godoy’s sculptures
instabilities; it can be the place where one feels
also balance. Godoy uses the most basic building
most frightened and uneasy. Godoy’s Flayed White
materials to create his sculptures, the same
expresses these associations and tensions in its
materials used to construct homes whether they
physical structure. Yet although the sculpture
are as well-designed (and expensive) as a Richard
may seem a bit precarious, its overall experience
Neutra house or as simple (and inexpensive)
is one of security.
as a shanty assembled of plywood sheets and
Viewers interacting with the sculpture
corrugated metal. Most importantly, for the
become explorers, circling the form, peering
artist, the idea of home also implies a universally
inside and out. If they accept the artist’s
understood personal connection to a particular
invitation to climb up into the structure, they
structure.
find additional perspectives on both Flayed
Flayed White creates a tension between
stability and instability that is immediately
White and the surrounding gallery. Or, they may discover that they have become the sculpture,
perceptible when one perches on the interior
with the construction serving as merely their
platform or stands beneath the arching skeleton
pedestal. By encouraging such moments
at the end of the gallery. This soaring rib cage
of self-awareness, Flayed White confounds
splayed open and ready to engulf visitors is
the conventionally passive gallery viewing
constructed of armatures and ledges that seem
experience and again highlights the perception of
precarious or unstable. However, after moving
psychological vulnerability.
through the object, it becomes clear that all parts
The materials Godoy employs—wood,
and pieces are secure, and the work establishes a
screws, paint, artificial lights, and wiring—are
sense of strength and support that is amplified by
immediately familiar as those from which homes
Installation view of What’s the Big Idea? at The Happy Lion, 2007 Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
Installation view of L.A. Confidentiel at Centre d’art contemporain du Parc Saint Léger, 2008 Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles
are typically built. Although also used frequently
Godoy is acutely aware that his work
in a variety of contemporary artworks, they lack
may engage in a conversation with various
the stigma of “preciousness” associated with such
art historical precedents, but he adamantly
traditional sculptural media as marble or bronze,
maintains that his installations are just as
and they can be purchased (relatively affordably)
strongly and evidently connected with vernacular
almost anywhere and used for any project. These
culture and everyday life. Born in Ontario,
materials connect to how Godoy began his career
California, in 1974 to a Mexican-American family
working in a woodshop. They speak to what he
who emigrated to the U.S. via Tijuana, Godoy
calls the “manifestation of a problem-solving
learned from his parents to make the most of
aesthetic.”1 And, they clearly announce the
the materials around him, and the adaptability
accessibility of his work, both intellectually and
and ingenuity they demonstrated have remained
physically.
part of his process and aesthetic. This heritage
Godoy’s interest in accessibility is
comes to the foreground in the materials he
twofold: he asks viewers to come inside what is
chooses and the ways he manipulates them.
traditionally defined as a sculpture and demands
His practice began quite simply while he was
that viewers bring their own experiences and
working at a full-time job in a woodshop,
backgrounds to the interpretation of the work. “I
where he began using scrap wood to create
hope for a level of ambiguity that helps activate
miniature sculptures during breaks. When he
the knowledge of the viewer in the purest
was given the opportunity to show his work at
sense of how I think art should operate. Your
Angela Hanley Gallery in Los Angeles, he was
knowledge, in your time, with your history and
suddenly faced with filling a much larger space
sense of place.” Reflecting these thoughts, Godoy
with few resources and very little time. This
describes Fast-formal Object: Flayed White as “an
armature for ideas.”2
In recent projects, Godoy has made light another integral element, imbuing his sculptures with luminous and atmospheric qualities despite their pedestrian materials. A combination of
challenge signaled a paradigm shift toward the Fast-formal Objects, a series of works created quickly and reflecting his resourceful and
practical sensibilities. Fast-formal Object: Flayed
White continues on this trajectory, especially in the dialogue it develops with the architecture
warm and cool fluorescent lights attached to the
of the Wexner Center building, designed by
erratic wooden fragments of Flayed White adds
Peter Eisenman and Richard Trott, where it
a dimension of color to a construction that is
demonstrates the qualities of self-reliance,
otherwise devoid of any color at all. The reflective
versatility, and instability that have become
vinyl floor glows both beneath and within the
characteristic of Godoy’s work.
sculpture, activating it and neutralizing it simultaneously by camouflaging the distinction
Godoy’s solo exhibition What’s the Big Idea?
at The Happy Lion in Los Angeles in 2007 is
between the object and the ground on which
indicative of his early “fast-formal” aesthetic.
it sits. The resulting dialogue between the
The explosive wooden constructions suggest
ethereal and the corporeal seems to express the
organized chaos, but as one looks more closely,
psychological and physical sensations of stability
their grace and grandeur become evident.
and instability one experiences while moving
The objects—consisting of lumber in every
through the sculpture.
imaginable shape and size—unite diverse forms
Fast-formal Object: Flayed White, 2010 Plywood, metal, paint, and mixed media Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Sven Kahns
in a totality that is simultaneously organic
playgrounds, through which one can trace and
and architectonic and reaches a new level of
chase potential references to constructivism (like
monumentality for Godoy’s sculpture.
Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International),
In 2008, he constructed a work for the L.A. Confidentiel exhibition at Centre d’art
contemporain du Parc Saint Léger in Pougues-
white-on-white paintings (whether painted
by Kazimir Malevich in Moscow in the 1910s or Robert Ryman in New York in the 1960s), and
les-Eaux, France, employing a cleaner design than wooden constructions by artists as dissimilar as previously seen in the works of What’s the Big Idea?
Louise Nevelson and Tadashi Kawamata. Two
He narrowed his palette and eliminated some of
references that seem particularly evident are
the smaller elements that had punctuated his
those to Kurt Schwitters’s Merzbau and a group of
earlier work. The gestures are still sweeping and emphatic, but the structure starts to feel more controlled. Shortly after this exhibition, Godoy settled on the monochromatic constructions, such as Big Blue (2010), that became the ongoing
igloo-like constructions by Mario Merz, an artist
associated with Italian arte povera of the 1960s and
1970s. Both Schwitters’s Merzbau and Merz’s igloos carry their own associations with ideas of home,
heightening their relevance to a discussion of
focus of the Fast-formal Objects and his practice.
Godoy.
contemporary art, the Fast-formal Objects’
of his Merzbau in 1923 in his home in Hanover,
For those familiar with modern and
armatures for ideas can become art historical
Fast-formal Object: Big Blue, 2010 Mixed media construction 18 x 32 x 19 feet Courtesy of Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Joshua White
Kurt Schwitters began the first version Germany. He started the lifelong construction
anew in Norway in 1937 and created its final, unfinished iteration in England in 1947. The bewildering construction, which was intended to
the militant terms of guerilla warfare. Over time (and outside Italy) arte povera has instead come to
be seen as characterized by these artists’ reliance
be walked and climbed on and through, consisted
on unsystematic and intuitive approaches to
of abstract shapes protruding in every angle
synthesizing unaltered materials, often rough
from ceiling to floor. The perpetually changing
and commonplace, into poetic and subtle
environment encompassed nooks, grottoes,
constructions. Whereas Godoy is interested in
and alcoves housing sentimental souvenirs
individual connections to “home,” Mario Merz
and dedications to artist friends Hannah Höch,
concentrated on collective associations. Merz’s
El Lissitzky, and Mies van der Rohe. Merzbau
igloos were built from an eclectic assortment of
eventually became an amalgamation of
materials that frequently included neon lights,
Schwitters’s personal life and his art and more
slate, wood, and earth. Their evocations of a kind
or less a part of his home as well. For all those
of home suggested a coalescence of eastern and
reasons, ghosts of Merzbau emerge from Godoy’s
western cultures, and of the traditional and the
Fast-formal Objects. Formal similarities abound,
technologically advanced, as Merz employed
and Schwitters too felt very strongly that his art
both the materials of contemporary construction
should be accessible to more than just the elite:
and the flexibility and adaptability of nomadic
“(f )or Merz there were no dividing lines between
cultures.
the important and the banal, between sense
Referring to the physical structures
and nonsense, between art and life.” Godoy’s
of houses through his choice of construction
Fast-formal Objects are less overtly nostalgic and
materials and the psychological space of home
reflect the artist’s life as well as his notions of
in balance, Gustavo Godoy fills Fast-formal Object:
3
personal than Schwitters’s Merzbau, but they too home. Godoy began building his monumental
as a place where stability and vulnerability exist Flayed White with ideas that have true universality.
installations as a way to unify his experience in
The project can be explored and understood by
architecture school, his access to commonplace
anyone willing to bring their own experiences
materials, and his interest in moving into the
and backgrounds to it. That resonance is
field of fine art, but also as a way to investigate
ultimately what the artist strives to achieve in his
the roles of shelter and the home.
playful, dynamic, interactive sculptures.
Godoy’s work does not fall precisely within the arte povera tradition (and lacks the political
radicalism sometimes associated the movement), but like its Italian artists, he employs modest materials in a time of extreme consumerism in an effort to create something that resonates as much with casual viewers as with denizens of the art world. In an essay published in Flash Art in
1967, art critic Germano Celant issued a manifesto for arte povera, framing the work of artists such as
Mario Merz and Jannis Kounellis, who rejected
institutional systems and mass consumerism, in
Katy M. Reis is the curator of this presentation of Gustavo Godoy’s Fast-formal Object: Flayed White and a curatorial assistant at the Wexner Center.
Notes 1 Email conversation with the artist July 11, 2010. 2 These comments come from both the email conversation with the artist cited above and from his remarks to the Wexner Center’s docents on November 5, 2010. 3 Ulrich Krempel and Karin Orchard, Kurt Schwitters (Hanover: Norddeutsche Landesbank, Landeshauptstadt Hannover der Oberbßrgermeister Sprengel Museum Hannover und Autoren, 1996), 64.
About the Artist
Six Solos Erwin Redl Megan Geckler Tobias Putrih/MOS Gustavo Godoy Katy Moran Joel Morrison
Born in Ontario, California, in 1974, Gustavo Godoy
November 9, 2010–February 13, 2011
lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BA from
Six Solos is organized by the Wexner Center, with Chief Curator of Exhibitions Christopher Bedford as the overall curator for the series. Curatorial Assistant Katy M. Reis was the project curator for Gustavo Godoy.
the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1998 and briefly studied architecture and urban design at the University of California, Los Angeles, before temporarily leaving Southern California to earn his MFA from Vermont College in Montpelier, Vermont. Godoy has exhibited extensively in California, with solo shows at Honor Fraser, PRISM, and The Happy Lion, all in Los Angeles, and group exhibitions at the Torrance Art Museum, The Balmoral in Venice, the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, and MAK Center for Art & Architecture at the Schindler House in Los Angeles. Further afield, he has exhibited in Brooklyn (New York) and Mexico City, and at Centre d’art contemporain du Parc Saint Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, France. His work has been reviewed and discussed in
All exhibitions and related events at the Wexner Center for the Arts receive support from the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. © The Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts. Wexner Center for the Arts The Ohio State University 1871 North High Street Columbus, OH 43210-1393 wexarts.org
publications including Frieze, Artslant, Sculpture Journal,
Art in America, and the Los Angeles Times.
Please note: Gustavo Godoy intended for Fast-formal Object: Flayed White to be interactive, with visitors invited to climb up into the sculpture itself. To ensure the safety of all our visitors, we ask that visitors who wish to experience the project in this way make an appointment to do so with Curatorial Assistant Katy M. Reis (creis@wexarts.org). Appointments may be scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays between 10 and 11 am (except for holidays). You will also be required to review and sign a waiver and bring it to your appointment. (Waiver forms are available in the galleries or will be sent to you when you schedule your appointment.) Parent or guardian signature on the waiver is required for all minors under the age of 18. Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian while interacting with the sculpture. The Wexner Center for the Arts is committed to access for its programs, services, and exhibitions. Access may be limited by the nature of the program, service, or exhibition.
Photo credits: Cover and overleaf, Sven Kahns; center panel, clockwise from top, Sven Kahns, M. Christopher Jones, Sven Kahns