Exhibited April 17, 2012 to September 7, 2012
Magdalena Abakanowicz for many years has dealt with the issue of “the countless”.
She says: “I feel overwhelmed by quantity where counting no longer makes sense. By unrepeatability within such quantity. A crowd of people or birds, insect or leaves, is a mysterious assemblage of variants of a certain prototype, a riddle of nature abhorrent to exact repetition or inability to produce it, just as a human hand can not repeat its own gesture”.
Abakanowicz is recognized as one of the most potent and unique voices in contemporary art with a distinct sculptural vocabulary that expresses a philosophical quest. The sculptures exhibited at Dag Dag Hammarskjold Plaza are titled Walking Figures, 2009. This group of ten headless, armless bronze figures, each approximately 8 1/2 feet tall, stands facing in one direction, with one foot forward, giving the impression of an advancing and forbidding army.
The figures are all unique, as the intricately rippled surfaces differ on each, imparting individuality. Viewed from behind, the skin-like texture gives way to a smooth, concave surface, reminiscent of an empty husk. Dag Hammarskjold’s notable quote, “Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road” seems a perfect conceptual foundation for the Walking Figures which are at once beautiful and unsettling, a reminder of the fragile nature of the human condition.
http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/
This is exhibition was presented by Marlborough Gallery.
