Installation view of "Into the Fray" by Elana Herzog at LMAKprojects, 2011. Image courtesy of LMAKprojects.
Into the Fray, on view through March 27th, marks Elana Herzog’s first solo exhibition at LMAKprojects and provides a fresh look at her ongoing investigation of deconstructing found textiles. You might recall seeing Herzog’s work at The Drawing Center when she was included in the recent exhibition, Apparently Invisible: Selections Spring 2009. For that project she intended to re-shape the walls through the installation of dark wedges of stapled fabric in the corners of the Main Gallery. At LMAKprojects, she has created a new site-specific installation that responds to and transforms the gallery’s long and narrow space with her signature use of fabric and staples along with freestanding sculptural elements.
All of Herzog’s installations use ordinary found fabrics, such as bedspreads and coats, many with tacky colors and of cheap quality, which are stapled and torn away to leave remnants of patterns simultaneously emerging and disappearing into the wall. Upon entering her current installation, diagonal orange chalk and graphite lines are the foundation upon which scraps of fabric and staples wrap around the gallery. Rather than using traditional materials such as paint or ink, the unraveling threads and staples serving as her primary means of mark-making. The expressive and dynamic lines intersect in areas of dense accumulations of cloth or diffuse into an unadorned line. As the eye attempts to follow the lines along the walls, one’s physical movement within the space is restricted by floor-to-ceiling three-dimensional objects inserted in the center of the already confined architecture. Constructed from an assemblage of materials including metal shelving brackets, pieces of drywall, MDF, and wood, all wrapped with lines of stapled cloth, the sculptures are undeniably present and confrontational. Despite the volumetric footprint within the small space, the sculptures are actually quite linear and open, conveying an ephemeral quality that relates to the pieces directly on the wall.
Working with a variety of found materials, Herzog’s work operates on many levels, with process at the core as well as a continued exploration of presence and absence. Her enduring approach and technique remain the same, though the limited space at LMAKprojects has pushed her work in an interesting new direction. This show is an exciting testament to her skill in negotiating and tailoring her practice to whatever challenging space she is presented with. –Rachel Liebowitz, Assistant Curator