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January 22 - 29, 1999

[Art Reviews]

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Sphere city

DeCordova artists are in the round

by Leon Nigrosh

ON THE BALL: THE SPHERE IN CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE At the DeCordova Museum, 5 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, through March 14.

LUBBER Over the centuries, the sphere has been the stimulus for amazingly grand and complex artistic, musical, philosophical, and theological activities. The DeCordova's current exhibition, which takes place both inside and outside of the museum, showcases nearly 60 sculptures and installations by 30 contemporary artists who devote their energy exploring the countless possibilities that this seemingly inconsequential shape has to offer. Objects from the infinitesimal to the monumental are presented in a variety of materials, including the traditional applications of wood, metal, clay, and glass, as well as the less-conventional mediums of human hair, lint, and chewing gum.

Two of the most mesmerizing works in the exhibit are Wendy Ross's welded-steel balls set at the foot and suspended above the head of the main stairway. Each of these five-foot diameter spheres is composed of steel rods laced together with incredible precision. Her Haiku is an open lattice of thin-lined angles that resolutely encase the ball of air within. Millefiore creates a similar effect by employing whorls of curvilinear configurations. The sculptures are both solid and fluid -- the thin steel rods provide actual physical and implied visual weight, while the encompassed air contributes a sense of weightlessness.

Standing alone in its own gallery space in an isolated part of the museum, Michael Shaughnessy's homage to the sphere also affects the senses. His Hay Round is an eight-foot diameter ball of freshly cut hay. We marvel at the scale (made even more monumental because of the gallery's close quarters), surreptitiously touch the soft yet prickly surface, note the changing spectrum of natural colors, and smell the perfume of new mown hay.

At the other end of the spectrum, Shelburne artist Josh Simpson offers us a complete universe within each of his six tiny, blown-glass spheres. Whether it is his smallest two-inch Inhabited Planet or his nine-inch diameter Mega Mega, we are sucked into an interior floating world filled with innumerable colors and shapes that seem to be in a constant state of flux. Each time we look into these frozen liquid orbs, we find some new shape emerging from another layer and another depth. Through his deft use of glass and its intricate techniques, Simpson transports us to new universes far in the cosmos or deep under the sea.

Dean Snyder's imposing seven-foot-diameter Lubber, a perfect sphere constructed of red cedar strapping with dozens of circular steel door pulls attached in a haphazard pattern, immediately -- and unexplainably -- puts us in mind of an old captain's sea chest. Whether it is the title, the choice of materials, the repetition of the circular motif, or the object's solidity, the obvious incongruity of the piece is set right by the fact that it is still basically a sphere.

The same is true with both Lars-Erik Fisk's DeCordova Ball Maquette and the full-size, eight-foot-diameter DeCordova Ball. In each case the artist has taken the architectural elements of the museum's alcoves and roof, bricks, mortar, and slate, and reduced them to a spherical presence.

For all of the humor, the use of shocking oddball materials, the artists' attribution of various mystical purposes, and the visual and tactile experiences that make up this exhilarating exhibition, we are eventually drawn to the realization that the simplicity of the sphere, any sphere, belies its complexity.

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (781) 259-8355.


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