Keith Sonnier
"Alternating Currents,"
1997
© ArtNet Worldwide 1997
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david ebony's
new york top ten
keith sonnier
at leo castelli
Mar. 22-Apr. 26, 1997
This exhibition of recent neon and
electrical-transmission wall
sculptures by Keith Sonnier,
collectively titled "Alternating
Currents," is literally shocking.
There are signs in the gallery
warning visitors not to touch the
electrified black wire fences that
the artist has set up throughout
the space. The fences are arranged
in a way that seems designed to
control the flow of traffic. It's
not that the Louisiana-born artist
treats his audience like cattle,
rather, the fences seem to
function as a means to slow down
New York's frantic art-viewers and
help guide them through this
amazing show. After interviewing a
member of the gallery staff who
admitted that the fences give only
a very minor shock, I tested them
to find that the warning signs
were more jolting in visual terms
than the wires were in terms of
touch.
Seven neon works in the front room
are composed of thin lines of
bright colors. They suggest
fanciful, abstracted figures. The
artist says that the designs are
related to images of ancient
fertility goddesses and of the
Hindu god, Ganesh. In some of the
works Sonnier incorporates
household objects, such as plastic
bottles and laundry soap
containers, which he salvaged from
the home of his late parents.
Subtly embedded into the
compositions, the objects are
gently illuminated by the colorful
neon glow.
Pulsating and buzzing in the back
room are two curious electronic
wall sculptures that look like
highly stylized science-museum
demonstrations of a Jacob's
ladder. In fact, they result from
the artist's study of the work of
Nicola Tesla, the scientist who
invented a transformer to produce
high voltages of a high-frequency
alternating current. Sonnier, in
this high-voltage show, has
invented a new way to experience
the world.
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