Inman Gallery
2006Action
Solo exhibition, Inman Gallery, Houston
Inman Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Sigrid Sandstrom entitled “Action”. The exhibition opens with a public reception on Saturday May 20, 2006.
Inspired by a visceral and very personal relationship to her native landscape, Sandström presents us with a rich collection of musings on humanity’s complex relationship to the natural world. For the past six years, themes of exploration and the search for utopia have fascinated the artist and have been the focus of her work. Though a painter first, Sandström shows a voracious appetite for exploration through the diverse media presented. In Action, paintings, video, slide projection, and photographs coexist in a carefully structured presentation and demonstrate the breadth of the artist’s practice.
A large black rectangle of nylon cloth, Black Flag hangs in the middle of the main gallery space, and exerts a solemn, funereal presence. For the artist, the flag represents a “free zone”; a quiet protest that simultaneously recalling the work of Kasimir Malevich and Ad Reinhardt. In one corner of the room sits Hargrave’s Commitment 0.667(Scout), a replica of the original box kite designed by the Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave (1850-1915), inside of which has been placed stacks of survival rations, chocolate and canned goods, their wrappers removed, revealing the silver aluminum of each container. The kite is the artist’s monument to the boundless faith and focused vision of Hargrave and the 19th century explorer Roald Amundsen, who reached the South Pole, claiming it for Denmark in 1911. The object’s similarity to a piece of Modernist furniture brings the early 20th century concepts of unified design into the mix. In the end, the simple structure serves as an homage to these ideas, even as the artist acknowledges them as quaint, outdated pursuits.
Inspired by a visceral and very personal relationship to her native landscape, Sandström presents us with a rich collection of musings on humanity’s complex relationship to the natural world. For the past six years, themes of exploration and the search for utopia have fascinated the artist and have been the focus of her work. Though a painter first, Sandström shows a voracious appetite for exploration through the diverse media presented. In Action, paintings, video, slide projection, and photographs coexist in a carefully structured presentation and demonstrate the breadth of the artist’s practice.
A large black rectangle of nylon cloth, Black Flag hangs in the middle of the main gallery space, and exerts a solemn, funereal presence. For the artist, the flag represents a “free zone”; a quiet protest that simultaneously recalling the work of Kasimir Malevich and Ad Reinhardt. In one corner of the room sits Hargrave’s Commitment 0.667(Scout), a replica of the original box kite designed by the Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave (1850-1915), inside of which has been placed stacks of survival rations, chocolate and canned goods, their wrappers removed, revealing the silver aluminum of each container. The kite is the artist’s monument to the boundless faith and focused vision of Hargrave and the 19th century explorer Roald Amundsen, who reached the South Pole, claiming it for Denmark in 1911. The object’s similarity to a piece of Modernist furniture brings the early 20th century concepts of unified design into the mix. In the end, the simple structure serves as an homage to these ideas, even as the artist acknowledges them as quaint, outdated pursuits.