On the wall

One comes upon it as one comes upon many a Donavan work: all at once. Silver Mylar tape formed into various sized loops, stuck together like a million cells at a party, or a rave. They gather, they hang off each other, and as is indicative for Donovan, resemble nothing you've ever seen before. The prosaic made profound.
This piece could be a map. The loops scale the walls and archipelegos form; isthmuses, lakes, peninsulas, all tenuously attached. The shredded coastline of Greece.
But it's not just these crazy loops. It's the light reflected into their minute interiors: the most delicate of wisps, each tracery unique.
This fragile sculpture is exquisite--but never precious--and compelling. Okay, unalloyed joy.

Fom the artist: "In a sense, I develop a dialogue with each material that dictates the forms that develop. With every new material comes a specific repetitive action that builds the work...
"I think the new fertile territory encompasses a range of practices that capitalize on the iconic identities of commercial and industrial materials by pressing them further into the realm of seduction."


Tara Donovan, "Untitled (Mylar)" at the Met
212-535-7710
through April 28, 2008
www.metmuseum.org

Tara Donovan (American, born 1969)
Detail, Untitled (Mylar), 2007
Mylar and glue
© Tara Donovan, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York.
Photo: Ellen Labenski