Karin Waisman - "Within Walls"

Karin Waisman

Karin Waisman

within walls

within walls

Karin Waisman

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Karin Waisman

within walls

Essay by Claudia Calirman

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Karin Waisman working in her studio, Summer 2015 4

Karin Waisman: The Madness of Order “And yet I am afraid, afraid of what my words will do to me, to my refuge, yet again. . . . If I could speak and yet say nothing, really nothing? Then I might escape being gnawed to death.”1 ―Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable Karin Waisman’s work is dazzling in its articulation of beauty. Her art is influenced by intricate seventeenth-century needlepoint, lace making, and Islamic ornamentation, and—oddly enough—the combination of these elaborate techniques results in a quiet, unobtrusive experience for the viewer. Her process is obsessive, compulsive, and laborious, based in a compelling method of adding and subtracting many materials including clay, resin, and plaster. Waisman’s work stands out for its elegance, its astounding control, and its exquisite repeated patterns.

Her reliefs are often monochromatic white, nearly blending in with the surrounding architectural framework and incorporating the wall into the composition. Waisman calls these wall-mounted pieces “wall reliefs” or “wall hangings.” They are in between the two-dimensional space of painting and the three-dimensional realm of sculpture, displaying a murallike quality.

Waisman was born and raised in Buenos Aires, where she received a degree in architecture. She then attended Cornell University and, in 1993, completed a MFA in sculpture. Two years later, she moved to New York, where she currently lives and works. According to the artist, her process entails combining natural and abstract elements: For the wall relief series, I start with a pattern directly from nature or one step closer to abstraction: a piece of lace or embroidery inspired by nature. In my earlier pieces that pattern was more representational, the last work is closer to abstraction. There is an element of modular repetition, far enough for the eye not to read it. The repetition element is important; as it creates a rhythmic cadence and a pulsation of growth. It is an additive process.2

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As an illusionist, she seduces viewers while tricking their eyes. As much as her work is highly controlled and painstakingly assembled—like an intricate puzzle with different tactile and spatial dimensions—it appears fluid and free-flowing. The wall reliefs are a contemporary form of trompe l’oeil, deceiving the eyes as they unfold in front of the beholder. The apparent unity of the pieces gives way to their detailed layers, which are formed by the sum of bits and pieces of many small casts and modeled fragments. Although it seems as though the interconnecting mazes have multiple patterns, they are actually formed from the repetition of similar designs arranged in different configurations.

Waisman’s work is fugitive, refusing to be labeled or categorized. Her art borrows from minimalist, baroque, and rococo styles and is influenced by architecture, decoration, and design. It embraces the minimalist lexicon of repetition, seriality, industrial materials, mathematical order, and monochromatic surfaces. However, it also subverts the dry vocabulary of minimalism by engaging with overly ornamental shapes, elliptical forms, and artificial devices, making it reminiscent of neo-baroque aesthetics.

Brocaded, curved patterns made of thin white plaster, resembling coils, are embossed and juxtaposed against one other on a carved, lacy, cast white surface. Their circular shapes and arabesque lines contrast with the geometric edges enclosing them.

To begin, Waisman lays a full-scale paper template of the relief on the wall with pins, which stands in as a road map for the actual construction.

She creates the patterns in clay and then produces silicone molds to cast them in a mix of resin and hydrocal. The thicker pieces are carved directly from resin blocks or are made from clay and fired in a kiln. The cast-coiled pieces are not attached or connected to each other; rather, the artist patiently fastens them one by one to the wall with small nails. The intrinsic fragility of the layering of these multiple relief shapes reveals a sense of unstable equilibrium in her process.

Waisman’s patterns are modeled on vegetal-inspired motifs, suggesting a crescendo of organic growth. They reflect the natural processes of evolution and decay, expanding and contracting as the eye meets their sensuous surfaces. They also evoke endless variations of ornamental forms that could lead the eye to infinity. Their repeated shapes could be replicated endlessly, inviting the beholder to envision the patterns extending beyond

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their actual limits. Though the wall reliefs are frameless, their enclosing edges act like barriers or protective shields.

The haunting beauty of these works recalls Edmund Burke’s treatise A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), in which the philosopher connects the romantic notion of the sublime with experiences of awe, wonder, and danger. If only seen for its decorative attributes, Waisman’s art may just be considered aesthetically pleasing, but under closer inspection, a sense of solitude and pain emanates from it. In Samuel Beckett’s intriguing monologue The Unnamable (1953), the narrator acknowledges the manic repetitiveness of his soul searching by saying: The words are everywhere, inside me, outside me . . . impossible to stop them, impossible to stop. I’m in words, made of words, others’ words . . . everything yields, opens, ebbs, flows, like flakes, I’m all these flakes . . . I’m all these words, all these strangers, this dust of words.3 Like Beckett’s character in search of his “self” through the utterance of language and silence, Waisman’s pieces convey a feeling of grief through their obsessive repetition of patterns and motifs.

This compulsive urge is also reminiscent of the work of Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino, especially the Modeled Earth series, initiated in

Anna Maria Maiolino Modeled Earth series

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Anna Maria Maiolino Modeled Earth series

1994, in which Maiolino’s gestures are multiplied through the intense production and accumulation of small strips of clay fashioned into a multitude of rolls and coils. In being shaped and reshaped, they suggest the unfolding of time and memory.4 As in Maiolino’s work, the traces of Waisman’s hand are left on the clay through her manipulations of it.

However, while Mailoino’s series is made of unfired clay and is therefore perishable, precarious, and unstable, Waisman’s curled shapes—despite appearing fragile—are fired or cast in resin, making them sturdy, stable, and controlled.

Waisman’s Cloth II (2015)—a wall hanging of a chain-like sculpture made of interconnected links of fired clay—changes every time the work is hung, with the chains moving in different directions. The interlocking net of Cloth II bears similarities with Mira Schendel’s Droguinhas (Little Nothings) series from the mid-1960s. While Schendel’s Droguinhas pieces are made of soft twisted and knotted rice paper, Waisman’s chains are heavy and structured, having a fuller corporeal presence. Waisman’s Felt I (2012-14), made of felt and strings, is reminiscent of the Argentinean Gyula Kosice’s Escultura móvil articulada (Mobile Articulated Sculpture) from the late 1940s, a hanging object that viewers can manipulate to change its position and final spatial configuration. Kosice’s malleable sculptures are movable, made with hinged pieces of brass connected by screws. According to Kosice, Escultura móvil articulada is constructed with found materials, such as metal bands used to reinforce leather handbags.5

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Mira Schendel Untitled (From Droguinhas) 1964-1966

Gyula Kosice Escultura Movil Articulada 1948

Like Kosice, Waisman is also interested in the materiality of her pieces: “I always work full scale, never do preliminary sketches. It’s very important the direct contact with the materials. I let the materiality speak, never change the color or finish of a piece.�6 Additionally, she incorporates illusionistic devices, also inviting a contemplative, Zen-oriented approach to her work:

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For the Ocean drawings, I used graphite and color pencil on Mylar. Mylar is a very stable material, and it is translucid. I start by tracing the pencil patterns (from the wall relief pieces) left on the walls of my studio. Then I build up, layer on top of layer, the blue surface of the ocean. It is a repetitive movement, mark next to mark next to mark, and has a component of meditation.

Depending on the number of layers, each drawing evokes our body moving at different depths in the water: more layers and darker is deeper; less layers and lighter is closer to the surface.7 Waisman’s wall reliefs and drawings invite an intimate bond between the viewer and artwork. Even if they are constrained within the boundaries of an imposed spatial limit by their geometric edges, they defy enclosure, asking for continuity in space. Like a menacing, expanding organic algae, they have the potential to contaminate the wall surface and the surrounding environment. Implicit to her pieces is a constant threat of a possible disorder. It is as if an imminent expansion beyond the selfcontrolled boundaries of Waisman’s art could suddenly be unleashed.

Claudia Calirman, November 2016

Claudia Calirman is Associate Professor of Art History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She is the author of Brazilian Art under Dictatorship: Antonio Manuel, Artur Barrio, and Cildo Meireles (Duke University Press, 2012), which received the Arvey Book Award for best book of the year by the Association for Latin American Art (2013). She is the author of “Pop and Politics in Brazilian Art” in the International Pop catalogue (Walker Art Center, 2015). She is a recipient of an Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital/ Warhol Foundation (2013). She has curated several exhibitions in New York, including Basta! at John Jay College (CUNY, 2016) and Antonio Manuel: I Want to Act, Not Represent! (Americas Society, 2011).

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End Notes: ———————–————1. Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable was originally published in French as L’Innommable (Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1956) and translated to English two years later by Grove Press. The Unnamable is the third and final novel of Beckett’s Trilogy series, which includes Molloy (1947) and Malone Dies (1951). Epigraph from Beckett, The Unnamable, in Samuel Beckett: The Grove Centenary Edition, ed. Paul Auster, vol. 2, The Novels (New York: Grove Press, 2006), 297.

2. Karin Waisman, e-mail to author, October 19, 2016.

3. Beckett, The Unnamable, 379–80.

4. Paulo Venancio Filho, “The Doing Hand,” in Anna Maria Maiolino: Vida Afora/A Life Line, ed. Catherine de Zegher, exh. cat. (New York: The Drawing Center, 2002), 284–85.

5. Gyula Kosice’s interview with Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro (June 1993). See The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, exh. cat., ed. Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro (Austin: Blanton Museum of Art and New York: Fundación Cisneros, 2007), 108-10.

6. Waisman, e-mail to author, October 19, 2016.

7. bid.

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within walls

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Installation view From left: Tondo VI, Tondo III, Cloth II and Wall Relief XXI

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Tondo VI, 2015-2016 cast resin and ceramic, 67” Ø x 2”d

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Tondo III, 2014-2016 cast resin and ceramic, 67” Ø x 2”d 67” diameter x 2”d 19

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Wall Relief XXI, 2014-2016 (next page detail) cast resin and ceramic, 69”h x 108”w x 2”d

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Cloth II 2014-2015, ceramic Dimension variable 25

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Felt II 2012-2014, felt and string 31”w x 70”h x 10”d 27

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the ocean drawings

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The Ocean Drawings, installation view 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar

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The Ocean #1 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w

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The Ocean #2 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w

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The Ocean #3 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w 34

The Ocean #4 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w 35

The Ocean #5 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w 36

The Ocean #6 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w 37

The Ocean #7 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w 38

The Ocean #8 2012-2014, pencil and graphite on mylar 40”h x 31”w 39

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Karin Waisman Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina Lives and works in New York City

Commissions for Public Spaces • • • • • •

Espacio Escultórico del Desierto, San Luis Potosí, México, Blue Oasis, 2014.

Museo del Barrio, New York, New York. Field I, January 2008.

SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY. Patience I, January 2004.

Plattsburgh Sculpture Park, SUNY Plattsburgh, NY. Nov1999.

ART/OMI Sculpture Park, Ghent, NY. Fieldwork. June 1994.

Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY. May 1993.

Solo Exhibitions • • • • • • • •

Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse University, NY, El Dorado, November 2016 Amelie Wallace Gallery, SUNY Old Westbury, NY, Sculptures in four dimensions, November 2006 Haim Chanin Fine Arts, New York, NY. The Garden of Eden, March 2004.

Plattsburgh State Art Museum, Plattsburgh, NY. Sculptures and drawings, January 2000.

Museo del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico. Sculptures and drawings, September 1997.

Fundación Banco Patricios, Buenos Aires. Sculptures and drawings. September 1996.

Hartell Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Sculptures and prints. April 1993.

Tjaden Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. CCPA Grant. Dec 1992.

Group Exhibitions • Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY. Artist Choose Artist, Oct 2016-Jan 2017.

• Neuhoff Gallery, New York, NY. Natural Obsessions, May 2008 • El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. The (S)files,Bienual 2007-08.

• SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY. In Practice, April 2004.

• Yvonamore Palix Gallery, Mexico City. November 1999.

• Arte/Facto, travelling show, June-October 1999, Überseemusum, Bremen, Germany.

• Unesco Institut für Pädagogik, Hamburg, Germany.

• Bürgerhalle im Rathaus, Wolfsburg, Germany.

• Plattsburgh Sculpture Park, NY. Sculpture Terrace,1997-1999.

• Art Museum, SUNY Plattsburgh, N Y. Sculpture Park Projects, September 1996.

• ART/OMI Sculpture Park, Ghent, NY. Fieldwork. August 1994.

• Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY. ‘93 NY 50.

• Sculptors of the next century. May 1993.

• Hartell Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Sculptures and prints. April 1992.

• Art from South America, University of Massachusetts. Amherst, MA. April 1990.

• ACM Siggraph, Boston, MA, Animation, August 1989.

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Articles and Reviews • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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Claudia Calirman, Karin Waisman: The Madness of Order, Point of Contact Publications, Syracuse, NY, 2016, Hardcover 48 pgs.

A Garden in the Desert, The sculpture Space of the desert of San Luis Potosi,Mexico 2015, Hardcover 132 pgs.

Raul Berreneche, Art & Architecture, HC&C, July 2014.

Victor Gutierrez Sanchez, El Espacio Escultorico del Desierto, Revista Habita,Mexico, 2014.

Jose Aldrete-Hass, Sculpture Space in the Desert, Editorial Pramana, Mexico, July 2012.

Saul Yurkievich, Letters between a poet and a translator. Visual text Karin Waisman. Point of Contact, Vol.9, June 2009.

Judith Tennenbaum, Styrofoam: from industrial invention to artistic transformation, Rhode Island School of Design, Exhibition Notes, Number 29, Spring 2008 Fred Bernstein, The New York Times, July 24, 2008.

ARTMEDIA, Arte en Mesoamerica, Reviews, The Bienal, Costa Rica, 2007.

Martha Schwendener, Art review/The (S) Files 007, The New York Times, August 31, 2007.

Julian Zugazagoitia, Director El Museo, Introduction Catalogue 5th, NY, 2007.

Carmen Ramos, American Art Without Borders: The (S)Files Biennial 2007, Catalogue Museo del Barrio Elvis Fuentes, Catalogue 5th Bienal El Museo, New York, 2007.

Jonathan Goodman, Reviews, Sculpture Magazine, June 2006.

Gerard Mc Carthy, Reviews, Art in America, summer 2006.

Graciela Kartofel, News & views, Art Nexus, October 2004.

Hilarie Sheets, Reviews, ARTnews, summer 2004.

Alejandra Villasmil, Reviews, Arte al Dia, #103, June 2004.

Grace Gluek, Art in Review, The Garden of Eden, The New York Times, April 16, 2004.

Olivier Berggruen, Efflorescence & Evanescence. Catalogue Haim Chanin Fine Arts, March 2004.

Shirley Kaneda, Editor's Choice, BOMB Magazine, March 2004.

Arte Compartido, Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, Mexico, February 2000.

Barbara J. Bloemink, essay Catalogue Plattsburg Art Museum, January 2000.

Edward Brohel, "Introduction", Director Plattsburg State Art Museum, Catalogue Sculpture Park,1999.

Osvaldo Sanchez, "Tecali or the house where we never live…", Catalogue Artefact Germany, July 1999.

Adrian Sina "Advento, the ethics of a shared transcultural utopia", Catalogue Artefact Germany, 1999.

Carlos Aranda and Paloma Porraz, "The illusion of construction", Catalogue Museo del Chopo, 1997.

"Exhibitions, Summer 1996, Sculpture Project and Proposals". Museum News, SUNY Plattsburgh, vol.6.

Elena Oliveras "Jugar en serio", Catalogue Fundación Banco Patricios, September 1996.

Juan Medrano-Pizarro "Circles, plans, spirals and puzzles", Catalogue Fundación Banco Patricios, Sept. 1996.

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Michael Kimmelman, “Outdoor Sculpture in Review”. The New York Times, August 6, 1993.

Shelley Cryer, “A melting pot of Art”,. The Sunday Gazette, July 30, 1994.

“Art Criticism in Latin America", Karin Waisman, Q Journal of Art, Cornell University,1993. ”Interview with Ursula von Ridingsvard", Karin Waisman, Q Journal of Art, Cornell University, 1992.

Grants and Awards • • • • •

Venture Found, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. Multimedia piece: “(des)encounters”, The poetic gaze of Enrique Lihn, in collaboration with Juan Medrano-Pizarro.

June 1996-March 1997.

CCPA Grant, Council for Creative And Performing Arts,Cornell University,1992.

ACM Siggraph, Boston, MA. Computer Animation Show, Category: Projects. "PotHeads", animation (3 minutes) in collaboration, August 1989.

School of Architecture, Buenos Aires. December 1983.

Architects Association of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dec. 1981.

Education • •

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Degree: Master in Fine Arts, May 1993.

University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Diploma: Architect. December 1986.

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Published on the occasion of an exhibition from November 3rd to December 10th, 2016.

Point of Contact Gallery The Warehouse Building 350 West Fayette Building Syracuse, NY 13202 T: 315 443 2169 www.puntopoint.org Within Walls is printed in a limited Edition of 200 case bound copies.

Essay Š Claudia Calirman. New York.

Photography credits: pg 4, Antonia Brillembourg pg 14 to 25 David Broda pg 26 to 39, Tria Giovan Printed in USA.

Š 2016 by Karin Waisman www.karinwaisman.com

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Point of Contact Gallery Staff: Miranda Traudt, Managing Director Rainer Wehner, Preparator Kendall Harter, Assistant Director Meghan Ferrucci & Connie Flores Gallery Assistants Tere Paniagua, Executive Director Cultural Engagement

This exhibit at Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse, New York is made possible thanks to the generous support of The College of Arts and Sciences, and the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University.

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