April 24, 2010 Mia Feuer: Suspended Landscapes
Mia Feuer
Suspended Landscapes
Transformer Gallery
1404 P Street, NW Washington, DC 20005
Currently exhibiting at the hole-in-the-wall venue that is Transformer Gallery, located off P Street (dwarfed by the massive Whole Foods next door) is Mia Feuer’s Suspended Landscapes installation. You’re confronted with the installation even before you enter the gallery – and once you’ve entered, the hanging construction is so tremendous it borders on invading your personal space. There are cranes and pulleys, colored bright blue and red, tangled and covering almost every square inch of the gallery. In fact, in order to move around the piece, you’re forced to duck and weave through Feuer’s industrial forest.
Her subject matter, evident through the juxtaposition of her title and the installation itself, is one that never ceases to interest me. What’s most impressive however, is Feuer’s delicate balance in relaying her message. With most social commentary, the message too often comes off as obnoxious and overbearing, creating an even greater divide between opposing views. Feuer seems to have found a sophisticated, yet still effective, means of communicating her thoughts on industrialization and the impact humans have made on our environment. The pulleys ultimately keeping her construction from collapsing on top of its visitors only serve to remind us that our fabricated world is hanging by a thread (in this case, quite literally). Its sheer scale is both daunting and disorienting, a feeling all too familiar from walking through Richard Serra sculptures. At the same time, the playful red and blue primary colors make it a bit more light-hearted. Were the constructions painted black and gray, the tone created by her piece would be entirely different. In a way, it almost seems that this is her way of telling us that there might be a silver lining to this convoluted mess we’ve created. Amidst the destruction of our planet’s natural landscape, there’s also construction and creation, and ultimately hope. If anything, Feuer’s symbolic Pandora’s Box seems to serve as a word of caution.
Suspended Landscapes, view from below
Suspended Landscapes, view from back of the gallery
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- Posted under April 2010
