There are certain very specific types of art I cling to, like Eva Hesse’s fiberglass and latex work and Lynda Benglis’s wax sculptures. Their choice to work with carnal, fleshy, and corporeal materials makes their pieces evoke the fragility and vulnerability of the body. The Smart Museum of Art’s “Allure of Matter” taps into those characteristics that scratch my creative itch and takes to a whole new scale.
The Smart-commissioned piece Civilization Pillar is something that you can smell when you enter the exhibition space. Its tall, yellow shape appears soft and touchable. Looking closely at the piece isn’t for the faint of heart. The process and material utilized in this work are particularly fascinating to me because of how the material is concealed. Made from wax, petroleum jelly, and stearic acid, the core of the piece is created from human fat collected from plastic surgery clinics. After being chemically purified, altered to wax, and cast into a column, the two artists—Sun Yuan and Peng Yu—see the work as a monument to our gluttonous society. And Civilization Pillar is indeed monumental. (These two aren’t strangers to working with unusual materials—live animals, human flesh, bone, and oil have all been a part of their practice. )
Through 5/2 at Wrightwood 659, 659 W. Wrightwood, and through 5/3 at Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood, theallureofmatter.org.
