Almond Zigmund: "Interruptions Repeated" - Parrish Road Show &
"Interruptions Repeated (Again and Again)" - Glenn Horowitz Bookseller
Marcel Duchamp’s famous quote came to mind when I went to see Almond Zigmund’s new site-specific piece, Interruptions Repeated, for the Parrish Road Show and now on view in the parlor room of the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum. In speaking about the act of making art Duchamp said, “The creative act is not formed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”
Art was a threesome, Duchamp believed, between artist, object and viewer. Site-specific installation art, however, adds one more element to this already potent mix: the site. A work of art that is site-specific, as Zigmund’s piece certainly is, must somehow merge all four of these components--creator, artwork, spectator and unique environment--into one complete, unified experience.
Located in this elaborate Greek Revival building that is home to whaling artifacts and nautical memorabilia, Interruptions Repeated, bisects the formal sitting room of the Museum like the magnificent hull and skeletal framework of a ship. Made out of two L-shaped forms of raw plywood--one solid, the other latticed, Zigmund’s piece both crowds the space like an occupying force, obliging viewers to skirt along the walls, and with it’s open, trellis-like patterning, invites viewers through, almost into the bowels of its center.
In designing Interruptions Repeated, Zigmund has organized the square space, giving viewers an experiential narrative, composing a journey around her sculpture through the proper parlor room and deeper into the historic Whaling Museum. At the same time, by creating an informal object with an open design, she has succeeded in leaving the experience of art accessible for the spectator’s interaction.
Zigmund is attracted to the vernacular of architecture in her work, but her use of patterning is more repurposed than imitated. In Interruptions Repeated, her sculpture both “interrupts” and “repeats” the decorative plaster ceiling and ornately carved window frames of this Greek Revival landmark.
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"Interruptions Repeated" by Almond Zigmund. Raw Plywood, 87 x 181 x 71 1/4 inches. Photo by Jenny Gorman. Image Courtesy of the artist.
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In conjunction with the installation at the Whaling Museum, Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton is exhibiting a series of Zigmund’s discrete 3D compositions and works on paper in their upstairs gallery in a show fittingly titled: "Interruptions Repeated (Again and Again)". In these works, Zigmund has combined minimal, geometric shapes with florid, Pop Art colors. Yet, they all bear a familial resemblance to Interruptions Repeated.
In Yellow Pile with Stripes, Zigmund again explores the L-shape she favors, this time as a sculptural base. Staging a canary yellow tower on a striped foundation, she sensualizes the edgy form of her sculpture with the granular flocked base.
Flocking—a technique of painting with small fiber particles applied to surfaces from wallpaper to velour on t-shirts—imparts Zigmund’s piece with tactility, depth, even nostalgia. The piece gains strength from the contrast of a softer, more natural texture against the crisp geometry of her forms.
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"Yellow Pile with Stripes" by Almond Zigmund, 2013. Two-part epoxy putty, foam, acrylic, flocking and enamel, 49 x 38 3/4 x 18 inches & "3 Planes - orange, grey/gold" by Almond Zigmund, 2013. Acrylic, enamel, flocking on stretched paper, 17 x 13 x 1 3/4 inches. Photo by Jenny Gorman. Image courtesy of Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc.
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The stretched paper wall-pieces at Glenn Horowitz play with the L-shaped theme, exploring it from different angles and colors. Zigmund has wrapped her flocking around the edges of the mounted drawings, giving them a slight object-like feel. Just as Interruptions Repeated extracts elements from the environment surrounding it, these drawings excerpt and repurpose many similar ideas. Solid forms tug against patterned ones, mirrored shapes come together at angles that plunge the viewer into deceptive space. In these works, the fourth element is an illusionary site.
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"Interior Inversion I" & "Interior Inversion II" by Almond Zigmund, 2013.
Acrylic, enamel, flocking on stretched paper, 25 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches. Photo by Jenny Gorman. Image courtesy of Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc.
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Zigmund says she wants to awaken viewers to the nature of opposition and sharpen their perception of space. In her sculptures, wall pieces at Glenn Horowitz and installation for the Parrish Road Show, she has succeeded in profoundly altering and illuminating our awareness of conventional forms and unobserved places we might otherwise pass right through, unawares.
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BASIC FACTS: The Parrish Road Show: "Almond Zigmund: Interruptions Repeated" is on view from Aug. 24 to Sept. 10, 2013 at Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum, 200 Main Street, Sag Harbor, NY 11963. Hours: Mon-Sat, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun, 1 to 5 p.m.
Glenn Horowitz Bookseller: Almond Zigmund: “Interruptions Repeated (Again and Again)” is on view from Aug. 25 to Sept. 22, 2013 in the in their upper gallery of Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 87 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, NY 11937. Hours: Thurs-Sat, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sun-Tues, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. www.glennhorowitz.com.
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