CELLS, 2000
Cells (Inflated Wall/Packed Cells with Narrow Passage) was an inflatable sculpture constructed out of the material used in the manufacture of lightweight rafts. Eight identical cube shaped modules, their swollen forms packed tightly together, were arranged into a barrier by stacking and binding. Though they appeared to be soft, like pillows, they were, in fact, rigid. Passage was only possible through a narrow channel formed by the space between the rows of stacked units.
In 2000, at the NSA Gallery in Durban, South Africa, Cells was sited to interfere with movement between the gallery’s two entrances. Viewers who entered from the upper level door were required to squeeze through a channel in the bulging form.
Cells was indeed a wall, but a temporary barrier. It seemed significant to me that when the wall finally came down at the end of the exhibition it did not crumble or fall, but rather, by increments, simply shrank. When all of the air was let out in a huge exhalation only the deflated cells remained. In the end the wall resembled a skin that had been shed.
Cells, 2002
Comfort Zone curated by Ellen Lupton
Fabric Worksop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA
pvc inflatables, velcro, ski-rope
Cells(Inflated Wall/Packed Cells with Narrow Passage), 2000
Open Circuit curated by Greg Streak
KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
pvc inflatables, velcro, ski-rope
Cells (Fragmented Gallery), 2003
Inventory of Imagined Places
Kreeger Museum, Washington, DC
pvc inflatables, velcro, ski-rope |
