2012
Also Called: Backbone, Anchor, Lifeline, 2012
Solo exhibition at BUAG: Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
Curated by Kate McNamara
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From the press release:
Vlatka Horvat’s site-specific installation takes its cue from the architecture of the gallery’s Art Deco railings, knobs, faux detailing, and decoration, as well as materials found near the Boston University campus and surrounding areas. A composition of assembled and constructed objects comprised of scaffold planks, cinderblocks, packing foam, and other reclaimed materials populates the gallery, creating a network of passages, barriers and spatial configurations.
“These industrial-looking assemblages solicit the viewer’s attention,” says Kate McNamara, Director and Chief Curator of Boston University Art Gallery. “Offering precarious articulations of function or lack thereof, they suggest both a velocity and a heaviness in movement and interaction. However, in many cases, their ability to operate only goes so far.”
Horvat challenges notions of stability and expectation through a visual systematic inquiry of the fallibility and possibility of associated behavior. Along the walls and throughout the pathways are locally sourced and found objects, whose weight is felt in their distressed and castoff appearance, as well as placement.
A reoccuring theme in Horvat’s work is the relationship between the human body and the constructed environment. Questions concerning how a body occupies and navigates space within Horvat’s work are suggestive of her background and training in performance. Her practice often engages site-specificity, performance, installation, photography, and collage.
Lexicon of Spatial Dysfunction
In conjunction with the exhibition, the BUAG has published Horvat’s Lexicon of Spatial Dysfunction, consisting of “terms and images exploring dysfunctional spatial relations between objects, bodies, structures, surfaces.” Horvat solicited a community of artists for images, texts, and drawings related to the theme of spatial dysfunction. Interspersed between these contributions, she includes her own images and notes on spatial relations.
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Works in the show:
Main space
Also Called, 2012
Site-responsive installation
Side space
Spread | Expanse, 2012
Various objects and materials
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Press:
The Boston Globe (pdf / link) – Nov 2012: “Bringing Energy and Anxiety into Pristine Place.” Review by Kate McQuaid of Vlatka Horvat: Also Called: Backbone, Anchor, Lifeline at Boston University Art Gallery.
