Think of string—of textiles—used in a sculptural way, and chances are you’ll hearken back to Eva Hesse and fiberglass-coated string pieces like Right After (1969) untidily looping down into space from hooks suspended in the ceiling; or what Lucy Lippard termed its “ugly” antecedent, Untitled (1970), an abstract snarl of latex-coated rope and string that is arguably to sculptural installation what Jackson Pollack was to canvas. In a more contemporary light, you might think of American artist Maggie Casey and an installation-style work like Staircase (2004 and 2006), a creation of string and monofilament line diagrammatically articulating a sculpturally representational incarnation of the titular reference: a staircase rising up through empty space.…see the entire article in the print version of March’s Sculpture magazine.
