New York
Gladstone Gallery
Miroslaw Balka’s 2 x (350 x 300 x 300), 36 x 36 x 29 / The Order of Things—a large-scale, welded sculpture of weathering steel—is an obverse rhomboid, split into two equal sections with darkened water pouring into each half. The sound emanating from the descent of this colored liquid as it flows into the two large vats is deafening at times. Viewers might wonder if the work was intended as a fountain, a site-specific installation, or possibly a monumental assisted readymade. During its incarnation at the Gladstone Gallery, The Order of Things was given its own space in a large partitioned area illuminated by a south-facing skylight. To enter, one had to pass through a small wooden door separating the reception area and offices from the space in which the work was housed. A single stool stood in front of the massive sculpture. The seat, too low for an adult, suggested the presence of a child. Might this child represent the artist’s memory of himself? Could this mechanical steel structure relate to a traumatic incident he might have experienced while growing up… see the entire review in the print version of December’s Sculpture magazine.
