Gustavo Godoy

Gustavo Godoy

wexner center for the arts

Introduction

This presentation of Gustavo Godoy’s Fast-formal Object: Flayed White is part of Six Solos a suite of six discrete exhibitions each featuring the work of a rising international artist. Since its inception in 1989, the Wexner Center has embraced a strong commitment to the work of younger artists engaged in pushing their practice in new directions. For many of the Six Solos artists, this marks their first solo exhibition in a U.S. museum, and for all of them, their presentation at the Wex offers a welcome chance to introduce their work to broad and diverse new audiences. Each artist has taken the center’s invitation as an incentive to broaden their scope of address and expand their already ambitious repertoire of forms and ideas. We believe that all six artists are on the cusp of greater achievement and renown, and we are particularly pleased to be able to include them in the programs and festivities marking our 21st anniversary in November 2010. As we now leave adolescence behind, we’ve undoubtedly gained a modicum of professional and institutional maturity, but Six Solos remains true to the energetic, irreverent spirit of artistic exploration and discovery that has marked the Wexner Center throughout its first two decades. That sensibility will certainly remain embedded in our DNA for years to come.

Sherri Geldin, Director Christopher Bedford, Chief Curator of Exhibitions Wexner Center for the Arts The Ohio State University

COVER, OVERLEAF, AND FACING

Fast-formal Object: Flayed White, 2010 Plywood, metal, paint, and mixed media Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles

Climbing Home Katy M. Reis

Aglow with seemingly haphazard light fixtures

its sheer size. All of the sculptures Godoy terms

and reflective vinyl flooring, Gustavo Godoy’s

Fast-formal Objects exude this same ebb and flow

monumental sculpture Fast-formal Object: Flayed

of stability (it is particularly evident in the earlier

White is at once looming and inviting. This site-

works, which recall a freeze-frame image of a

responsive construction—built to completely

recent explosion or a flurry of hurried gestures),

fill one of the Wexner Center’s galleries—elicits

yet the scale and the materials seem to steady

references to structures as familiar as a child’s

each work as a grounded object.

tree house and as esoteric as the sculptural environments German artist Kurt Schwitters called Merzbau. The concept of home, however,

“Home” can suggest psychological stability and vulnerability as well. Ideally, the home is where the two coincide, in a safe

functions as a starting point for a variety of

place whose inhabitants enjoy the intimacy of

interpretations of this project, and by extension,

vulnerability. Alternatively, of course, a home

of Godoy’s recent Fast-formal Objects more

generally. Homes can represent both stability and

can feel completely unguarded and susceptible to destruction by physical or emotional

vulnerability, concepts that Godoy’s sculptures

instabilities; it can be the place where one feels

also balance. Godoy uses the most basic building

most frightened and uneasy. Godoy’s Flayed White

materials to create his sculptures, the same

expresses these associations and tensions in its

materials used to construct homes whether they

physical structure. Yet although the sculpture

are as well-designed (and expensive) as a Richard

may seem a bit precarious, its overall experience

Neutra house or as simple (and inexpensive)

is one of security.

as a shanty assembled of plywood sheets and

Viewers interacting with the sculpture

corrugated metal. Most importantly, for the

become explorers, circling the form, peering

artist, the idea of home also implies a universally

inside and out. If they accept the artist’s

understood personal connection to a particular

invitation to climb up into the structure, they

structure.

find additional perspectives on both Flayed

Flayed White creates a tension between

stability and instability that is immediately

White and the surrounding gallery. Or, they may discover that they have become the sculpture,

perceptible when one perches on the interior

with the construction serving as merely their

platform or stands beneath the arching skeleton

pedestal. By encouraging such moments

at the end of the gallery. This soaring rib cage

of self-awareness, Flayed White confounds

splayed open and ready to engulf visitors is

the conventionally passive gallery viewing

constructed of armatures and ledges that seem

experience and again highlights the perception of

precarious or unstable. However, after moving

psychological vulnerability.

through the object, it becomes clear that all parts

The materials Godoy employs—wood,

and pieces are secure, and the work establishes a

screws, paint, artificial lights, and wiring—are

sense of strength and support that is amplified by

immediately familiar as those from which homes

Installation view of What’s the Big Idea? at The Happy Lion, 2007 Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles

Installation view of L.A. Confidentiel at Centre d’art contemporain du Parc Saint Léger, 2008 Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles

are typically built. Although also used frequently

Godoy is acutely aware that his work

in a variety of contemporary artworks, they lack

may engage in a conversation with various

the stigma of “preciousness” associated with such

art historical precedents, but he adamantly

traditional sculptural media as marble or bronze,

maintains that his installations are just as

and they can be purchased (relatively affordably)

strongly and evidently connected with vernacular

almost anywhere and used for any project. These

culture and everyday life. Born in Ontario,

materials connect to how Godoy began his career

California, in 1974 to a Mexican-American family

working in a woodshop. They speak to what he

who emigrated to the U.S. via Tijuana, Godoy

calls the “manifestation of a problem-solving

learned from his parents to make the most of

aesthetic.”1 And, they clearly announce the

the materials around him, and the adaptability

accessibility of his work, both intellectually and

and ingenuity they demonstrated have remained

physically.

part of his process and aesthetic. This heritage

Godoy’s interest in accessibility is

comes to the foreground in the materials he

twofold: he asks viewers to come inside what is

chooses and the ways he manipulates them.

traditionally defined as a sculpture and demands

His practice began quite simply while he was

that viewers bring their own experiences and

working at a full-time job in a woodshop,

backgrounds to the interpretation of the work. “I

where he began using scrap wood to create

hope for a level of ambiguity that helps activate

miniature sculptures during breaks. When he

the knowledge of the viewer in the purest

was given the opportunity to show his work at

sense of how I think art should operate. Your

Angela Hanley Gallery in Los Angeles, he was

knowledge, in your time, with your history and

suddenly faced with filling a much larger space

sense of place.” Reflecting these thoughts, Godoy

with few resources and very little time. This

describes Fast-formal Object: Flayed White as “an

armature for ideas.”2

In recent projects, Godoy has made light another integral element, imbuing his sculptures with luminous and atmospheric qualities despite their pedestrian materials. A combination of

challenge signaled a paradigm shift toward the Fast-formal Objects, a series of works created quickly and reflecting his resourceful and

practical sensibilities. Fast-formal Object: Flayed

White continues on this trajectory, especially in the dialogue it develops with the architecture

warm and cool fluorescent lights attached to the

of the Wexner Center building, designed by

erratic wooden fragments of Flayed White adds

Peter Eisenman and Richard Trott, where it

a dimension of color to a construction that is

demonstrates the qualities of self-reliance,

otherwise devoid of any color at all. The reflective

versatility, and instability that have become

vinyl floor glows both beneath and within the

characteristic of Godoy’s work.

sculpture, activating it and neutralizing it simultaneously by camouflaging the distinction

Godoy’s solo exhibition What’s the Big Idea?

at The Happy Lion in Los Angeles in 2007 is

between the object and the ground on which

indicative of his early “fast-formal” aesthetic.

it sits. The resulting dialogue between the

The explosive wooden constructions suggest

ethereal and the corporeal seems to express the

organized chaos, but as one looks more closely,

psychological and physical sensations of stability

their grace and grandeur become evident.

and instability one experiences while moving

The objects—consisting of lumber in every

through the sculpture.

imaginable shape and size—unite diverse forms

Fast-formal Object: Flayed White, 2010 Plywood, metal, paint, and mixed media Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Sven Kahns

in a totality that is simultaneously organic

playgrounds, through which one can trace and

and architectonic and reaches a new level of

chase potential references to constructivism (like

monumentality for Godoy’s sculpture.

Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International),

In 2008, he constructed a work for the L.A. Confidentiel exhibition at Centre d’art

contemporain du Parc Saint Léger in Pougues-

white-on-white paintings (whether painted

by Kazimir Malevich in Moscow in the 1910s or Robert Ryman in New York in the 1960s), and

les-Eaux, France, employing a cleaner design than wooden constructions by artists as dissimilar as previously seen in the works of What’s the Big Idea?

Louise Nevelson and Tadashi Kawamata. Two

He narrowed his palette and eliminated some of

references that seem particularly evident are

the smaller elements that had punctuated his

those to Kurt Schwitters’s Merzbau and a group of

earlier work. The gestures are still sweeping and emphatic, but the structure starts to feel more controlled. Shortly after this exhibition, Godoy settled on the monochromatic constructions, such as Big Blue (2010), that became the ongoing

igloo-like constructions by Mario Merz, an artist

associated with Italian arte povera of the 1960s and

1970s. Both Schwitters’s Merzbau and Merz’s igloos carry their own associations with ideas of home,

heightening their relevance to a discussion of

focus of the Fast-formal Objects and his practice.

Godoy.

contemporary art, the Fast-formal Objects’

of his Merzbau in 1923 in his home in Hanover,

For those familiar with modern and

armatures for ideas can become art historical

Fast-formal Object: Big Blue, 2010 Mixed media construction 18 x 32 x 19 feet Courtesy of Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles Photo by Joshua White

Kurt Schwitters began the first version Germany. He started the lifelong construction

anew in Norway in 1937 and created its final, unfinished iteration in England in 1947. The bewildering construction, which was intended to

the militant terms of guerilla warfare. Over time (and outside Italy) arte povera has instead come to

be seen as characterized by these artists’ reliance

be walked and climbed on and through, consisted

on unsystematic and intuitive approaches to

of abstract shapes protruding in every angle

synthesizing unaltered materials, often rough

from ceiling to floor. The perpetually changing

and commonplace, into poetic and subtle

environment encompassed nooks, grottoes,

constructions. Whereas Godoy is interested in

and alcoves housing sentimental souvenirs

individual connections to “home,” Mario Merz

and dedications to artist friends Hannah Höch,

concentrated on collective associations. Merz’s

El Lissitzky, and Mies van der Rohe. Merzbau

igloos were built from an eclectic assortment of

eventually became an amalgamation of

materials that frequently included neon lights,

Schwitters’s personal life and his art and more

slate, wood, and earth. Their evocations of a kind

or less a part of his home as well. For all those

of home suggested a coalescence of eastern and

reasons, ghosts of Merzbau emerge from Godoy’s

western cultures, and of the traditional and the

Fast-formal Objects. Formal similarities abound,

technologically advanced, as Merz employed

and Schwitters too felt very strongly that his art

both the materials of contemporary construction

should be accessible to more than just the elite:

and the flexibility and adaptability of nomadic

“(f )or Merz there were no dividing lines between

cultures.

the important and the banal, between sense

Referring to the physical structures

and nonsense, between art and life.” Godoy’s

of houses through his choice of construction

Fast-formal Objects are less overtly nostalgic and

materials and the psychological space of home

reflect the artist’s life as well as his notions of

in balance, Gustavo Godoy fills Fast-formal Object:

3

personal than Schwitters’s Merzbau, but they too home. Godoy began building his monumental

as a place where stability and vulnerability exist Flayed White with ideas that have true universality.

installations as a way to unify his experience in

The project can be explored and understood by

architecture school, his access to commonplace

anyone willing to bring their own experiences

materials, and his interest in moving into the

and backgrounds to it. That resonance is

field of fine art, but also as a way to investigate

ultimately what the artist strives to achieve in his

the roles of shelter and the home.

playful, dynamic, interactive sculptures.

Godoy’s work does not fall precisely within the arte povera tradition (and lacks the political

radicalism sometimes associated the movement), but like its Italian artists, he employs modest materials in a time of extreme consumerism in an effort to create something that resonates as much with casual viewers as with denizens of the art world. In an essay published in Flash Art in

1967, art critic Germano Celant issued a manifesto for arte povera, framing the work of artists such as

Mario Merz and Jannis Kounellis, who rejected

institutional systems and mass consumerism, in

Katy M. Reis is the curator of this presentation of Gustavo Godoy’s Fast-formal Object: Flayed White and a curatorial assistant at the Wexner Center.

Notes 1 Email conversation with the artist July 11, 2010.

2 These comments come from both the email conversation with the artist cited above and from his remarks to the Wexner Center’s docents on November 5, 2010.

3 Ulrich Krempel and Karin Orchard, Kurt Schwitters (Hanover: Norddeutsche Landesbank, Landeshauptstadt Hannover der OberbĂźrgermeister Sprengel Museum Hannover und Autoren, 1996), 64.

About the Artist

Six Solos Erwin Redl Megan Geckler Tobias Putrih/MOS Gustavo Godoy Katy Moran Joel Morrison

Born in Ontario, California, in 1974, Gustavo Godoy

November 9, 2010–February 13, 2011

lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BA from

Six Solos is organized by the Wexner Center, with Chief Curator of Exhibitions Christopher Bedford as the overall curator for the series.

Curatorial Assistant Katy M. Reis was the project curator for Gustavo Godoy.

the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1998 and briefly studied architecture and urban design at the University of California, Los Angeles, before temporarily leaving Southern California to earn his MFA from Vermont College in Montpelier, Vermont.

Godoy has exhibited extensively in California, with solo shows at Honor Fraser, PRISM, and The Happy Lion, all in Los Angeles, and group exhibitions at the Torrance Art Museum, The Balmoral in Venice, the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, and MAK Center for Art & Architecture at the Schindler House in Los Angeles. Further afield, he has exhibited in Brooklyn (New York) and Mexico City, and at Centre d’art contemporain du Parc Saint Léger, Pougues-les-Eaux, France. His work has been reviewed and discussed in

All exhibitions and related events at the Wexner Center for the Arts receive support from the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members, as well as from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council. © The Ohio State University, Wexner Center for the Arts.

Wexner Center for the Arts The Ohio State University 1871 North High Street Columbus, OH 43210-1393 wexarts.org

publications including Frieze, Artslant, Sculpture Journal,

Art in America, and the Los Angeles Times.

Please note: Gustavo Godoy intended for Fast-formal Object: Flayed White to be interactive, with visitors invited to climb up into the sculpture itself. To ensure the safety of all our visitors, we ask that visitors who wish to experience the project in this way make an appointment to do so with Curatorial Assistant Katy M. Reis (creis@wexarts.org). Appointments may be scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays between 10 and 11 am (except for holidays). You will also be required to review and sign a waiver and bring it to your appointment. (Waiver forms are available in the galleries or will be sent to you when you schedule your appointment.) Parent or guardian signature on the waiver is required for all minors under the age of 18. Children under the age of 12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian while interacting with the sculpture.

The Wexner Center for the Arts is committed to access for its programs, services, and exhibitions. Access may be limited by the nature of the program, service, or exhibition.

Photo credits: Cover and overleaf, Sven Kahns; center panel, clockwise from top, Sven Kahns, M. Christopher Jones, Sven Kahns