North Adams
On the floor was a carpet of beige linen intentionally laid down by the artist so that visitors would leave scuff marks to record their presence. Evidence and lingering traces of the past were among the persistent themes of “Under My Shoe,” an exhibition of works by Guillaume Leblon, who lives and works in Paris. While he has exhibited throughout Europe, this show was his first solo in a U.S. museum. Though a revelation, it was also an enigma. Using startling combinations of materials, from the glamorous (shiny metal alloys) to the mundane (towels, a mattress), Leblon alludes to such movements as Surrealism and Arte Povera, both of which flourished before he was born. MASS MoCA curator Susan Cross links him with even earlier, 18th-century English landscape painters, whose meandering paths are echoed in the scuffed tracks on the linen-covered floor. The glitzy, metal-covered pieces are made of chrysocale, an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin, which Leblon weaves to add textural interest..…see the entire review in the print version of December’s Sculpture magazine.
