THE GRANDEST OF ALL GRAND OPERAS RETURNS
[ART]
BODY PARTS
OPENS SATURDAY! Watch for CHARLIE BATCH (10/12) and FRANCO HARRIS (10/18) in the famous Triumphal Scene!
It’s been more than 20 years since Janine Antoni arrived with a splash, combining performance and sculpture in works to which the artist’s body was central — chewing up chocolate and lard in “Gnaw” or using her hair as a paintbrush in “Loving Care,” both in 1992. These and later artworks by Antoni helped revitalize installation art, providing fresh alternatives to sculpture’s tradition of monoliths-andmonuments. Curated by Margery King and occupying most of the Mattress Factory’s Monterey Street townhouse, Antoni’s interventions and displays (all from 2013) exist somewhere between a conventional one-person exhibit and a buildingwide installation. Entering the groundfloor gallery, we’re faced with “Graft,” two large tree stumps with roots intact. Close examination reveals that the stumps were previously joined and have been cut apart. Theatrically positioned as objects of contemplation, one stump is suspended with its trunk extending into a hole in the ceiling and the other sits on the floor; coiled at its base, somewhat inexplicably, is a casting of two entwined spinal cords. Heading up the stairs to the second floor in search of interpretive cues, we encounter the top of the tree trunk, from which “grows” a wood table displaying cast body parts. The body parts are sculptures in their own right, illogical combinations of elements: an arm holds a heart in the crook of its elbow; a head has sections of pelvic bone attached to it, looking like parasites; a section of neck empties into a cup-like cast of a breast. The female body here appears — albeit in fragments — as natural, sculptural, wondrous and subject to alteration, much as a tree can be formed into a table. In another room, raku bowls with pelvis-bone feet invoke the ancient trope of body as vessel. And upstairs, in “Crowned,” a rough-hewn crown molding looks as if it could have been original to the room, except that it culminates in yet more castings of pelvic bones, which were used to sculpt the shape of the molding. At the end of the line is “Honey Baby,” a video produced in collaboration with choreographer Stephen Petronio. A back-lit male figure heavily coated with honey slowly tumbles in a space that initially appears gravity-less but turns out to be a tunnel, or canal, providing necessary support, tethering consciousness to corporeal reality.
Campaign by Creme Fraiche Design. Original photo: David Bachman.
Janine Antoni’s “Graft” (detail: first floor view) {PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MATTRESS FACTORY}
{BY ROBERT RACZKA}
Verdi’s V erd di’ss
OCT 12, 15, 18, 20 Benedum Center Tickets $12 and up 412-456-6666 pittsburghopera.org
75th anniversary season: Opera for a new age
INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
UNDERSTAND EVERY WORD!
JANINE ANTONI: WITHIN continues through March 30. Mattress Factory, 1414 Monterey St., North Side. 412-231-3169 or www.mattress.org N E W S
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English texts projected above the stage.
TA S T E
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M U S I C
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S C R E E N
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A R T S
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E V E N T S
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C L A S S I F I E D S
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