Asia Society Museum Presents Sarah Sze: Infinite Line
Contact: Elaine Merguerian 212.327.9271, [email protected]
Exhibition is the First to Focus on the Artist’s Works on Paper and Drawings
On view December 13, 2011–March 25, 2012
Sarah Sze (born 1969, U.S.) is known for her elaborate installations in which everyday materials—such as plastic bottle caps, sheets of paper, strings, tape measures, cotton swabs, and scissors—are hung from the ceiling, mounted in corners, or nestled into discreet spaces. Sarah Sze: Infinite Line is the first exhibition to focus specifically on Sze’s work, from drawings to sculpture to installation.
Sze combines spontaneity and systemization in her work, which often suggests movement and the ephemeral. Energized chaos becomes painstaking order, when, upon closer inspection, seemingly turbulent scenarios reveal precisely placed objects. Her intimate, sculptural installations invite viewers to reevaluate their relationship to their surroundings.
“Sarah Sze: Infinite Line provides a critical inquiry into the process behind the work of one of the world’s most exciting visual artists,” said Melissa Chiu, Director of Asia Society Museum. “We are privileged to have had a long relationship with Sze, who is one of a handful of artists Asia Society Museum commissioned to create site-specific installations during our building reopening in 2001. Asian references, such as Chinese scroll painting and ink drawings, emerge as powerful, but latent and previously unexamined influences in her work that will be explored in this exhibition.”
The exhibition is divided into two parts. A smaller gallery houses earlier works on paper including graphite, ink and collage, lithograph and silkscreen. Some are unconventional portraits in which Sze asked each of her subjects to share a list of key events that shaped their lives. She then pictorialized the individual narratives and developed them into small drawings that reveal the subjects’ personal life stories.
A larger gallery features several new works that play with the boundaries between drawing and sculpture. The discrete works disassemble the traditional format of the scroll. Starting from the wall and pulling the drawing on to the floor, they examine illusionary space, perspective and the representation of landscape.
The full press release is attached below.