Lincoln, Massachusetts
deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
deCordova’s 2016 New England Biennial left me struggling with the definition of “sculpture” as it’s currently understood. The work of Heather Leigh McPherson is a case in point: it hangs on the wall, looking like a painting. But it’s made of an acrylic puddle poured over chiffon dyed in sorbet colors, and encased in each acrylic sheet is a scribble pad crayoned with two-dimensional scrawls. One sheet of plastic even contains a cigarette lighter. Multi-media, video, wall-hung pieces, interactive readymades-this biennial had them all, but not much in the way of traditional sculpture. The only freestanding three-dimensional objects were Ashley Bryan’s icons. His day job as a writer-illustrator of happy-story kids’ books does not jibe with his scary rag-and-bone grotesqueries. Like them or not, they emit a primal power. Yet they are not new work; Bryan assembled them in his spare time over decades. …see the entire review in the print version of June’s Sculpture magazine.
