Oakland, California
The title of Allison Leigh Holt’s recent exhibition, “The Beginning Was The End,” calls up images of endless loops, along with apocalyptic scenarios and intergalactic explosions. Oscar Kiss Maerth used the same words in the early ’70s to title a controversial pseudo-scientific book in which he argued that humans evolved from apes that ate the brains of other apes and that we are now de-evolving because our brains are too big and this cannibalistic practice has made us insane. (Maerth’s theory of human de-evolution gained notoriety from association with the rock band Devo.) Whether Holt subscribes to any of this or just finds it fascinating, I cannot say, but her new work is quite unusual and different from what you might expect, appealing on many levels– technical, aesthetic, philosophical, and .…see the entire review in the print version of April’s Sculpture magazine.
