Teresita Fernandez,
Pool, 1996.
© ArtNet Worldwide 1997
|
the artnet hit list
by John Mendelsohn
teresita fernandez
at deitch projects
Nov. 2 - 30, 1996
Entering the narrow door to the gallery, we
are faced with a steep set of grayish blue
stairs. They lead up to a four-foot-wide
walkway of the same color running around
the perimeter of the large room. The
walkway defines the edge of a deep space
resembling an empty swimming pool, with its
bottom being the cement floor of the
gallery. This impression of Teresita
Fernandez's installation is reinforced by
the stenciled outlines of a double row of
tiles which runs around the inner edge of
the "pool." The gallery's white walls are
misted with a gradation of blue, implying
aerial space.
Fernandez's installation plays with systems
of representation: the full-size
reproduction of three-dimensional space,
conceptual drawing and scenic illusionism.
While coexisting, these systems contradict
as well, creating a mild case of cognitive
disjunction. The aim here seems to be a
kind of poetic dislocation, into which
we've been able to physically enter. The
large space has become a kind of theater,
both stark and wistful, and strangely
evocative. Clearly someone to watch,
Fernandez has another work on view in New
York at the New Museum as part of a show of
three installations selected by curator Dan
Cameron.
Reviews 1996 Archives
|
