Bozenna Biskupska: Time Beyond Time
In a catalog available at the museum Peter Lachmann, a German theater director who has worked with Biskupska, compares her sculptures to the monuments of ancient Egypt, which “claim to be models of eternity.” But Biskupska seems to be doing something a bit different: monumentalizing a particular moment, making it seem eternal. Catching the Air, also mounted on two square logs, contrasts a sense of permanence with the suggestion of two moments in time. An abstractly elongated figure with a thin head rises next to a shorter figure. Multiple shades of green covering the wire mesh in varying thicknesses combine with the vertical shape to suggest moss growing on tree bark; but a rather large hand sticking horizontally out of the side of each figure contrasts with the work’s stark, upward lines and suggests that the shorter and larger pillar are actually a single figure. While the varied surface suggests a moment of decay, the outstretched hands make the figure seem momentarily alive. The way this mysterious forest being points in different directions–even the verticals aren’t exactly parallel–prevents any one movement, gesture, or formal motif from dominating, however. This work has a presence indeed “beyond time.”
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The other Cage is the piece that most rewards repeated viewing. Two large screens covered with the same thick blue as the floor panels in the other Cage, lean against opposite walls in a large, rectangular alcove. One first sees these blue solid surfaces as paintings, their organic patterns recalling soil or bark. But one panel is a bit closer to the viewer than the other, a choice the artist hopes will encourage the viewer to enter the space. And each rectangle is separated by a metal frame into three squares of which only the top one is illuminated, leaving the lower ones progressively darker. In fact the spotlight on one screen seems to be misaimed, pointing at only part of the top panel. But the lighting is Biskupska’s, and the interplay between brightly lit surfaces and darkness is what gives this work much of its fascination.
