Reuven Israel: Multipolarity

Composed of highly finished elements of various shapes, sizes and colors that are “skewered” onto metal rods, the sculptures initially lure the viewer to ascribe to them a function or purpose. At second glance, however, we realize that these objects resist categorization, do not serve any familiar function and cannot be defined using existing vocabulary.

Israel thus has created a universe in which objects are made real (i.e., independent of us and other objects) by their own central “poles” and surface qualities, rather than by any context or cognition imposed by the viewer. The objects express their quirky individuality through the vibrant finishes, kinetic shapes and contrasting juxtaposition of their elements.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with introductory essays by Gregory Volk and Graham Harman. To quote Volk’s essay:

I was riveted by this hyper-precise sculpture with a machine made look. While austere, it is also lush and vibrational and has a distinct air of the marvelous. Not exactly abstract, but also not exactly representational, this sculpture is peculiarly communicative and also seems suffused with potent, invisible energies, with matters of the inner life, including keen thoughts and emotions, and with questions of our relationship with the world, nature, society, technology, history, and the cosmos.

Visit the exhibition on Fridman Gallery’s website