As a cure-all for the evils of decadence in performance-art forms of the nineteenth century, Richard Wagner proposed the gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art, insisting on the benefits of what was then called concinnity, unifying principles in aesthetic expression across di erent media. Ry Rocklen, in slightly disabling the functionality of a range of practical objects and infusing other handmade works with the potential to serve a physical as well as a social purpose, proposes a series of sculptures that operate like early manifestations of the gesamtkunstwerk, together reinforcing a focus on familiar materials and often infusing them with spiritual associations. Because of allusions to numbers, the works carry a slightly coded yet resonant commentary on contemporary value structures, allowing the show to be read as a potentially hopeful critique of recent economic upheavals.
This assembly of works is grounded in building materials commonly used in Rocklen's California. On the Fourth Day (all works 2009), a folded-over cast-concrete mattress encrusted with a tight grid of shiny pastel glass squares, scintillates with the pearlescent sheen familiar to anyone accustomed to sun-mottled patios or the edges of swimming pools in Los Angeles. Other pieces include a parasol whose canopy has been shredded into strips that hang loosely on the frame like draped fronds, the base mounted on a weathered yellow wooden chair. The position of these floor items is determined by the spaces in a repeat pattern of 17-inch-wide triangular floor tiles inlaid with pennies. The warm glow emanating from Lucky Penny Tiles seems undeniably benevolent, a sensation thrown into critical relief by the recent crisis in financial stability. The spectre of numbers is present elsewhere, too: on the wall, Rocklen has mounted a series of what he calls Magic Number Ponchos – small capes that resemble medieval hoods – made of taupe-coloured linen, each lined in cotton of a di erent rainbow hue, each bearing a symbol on the chest abstractly configuring one of the numbers between one and nine. Rocklen's play with numbers combines simple beauty with gravitas lent by the significance of current events. There have been a number of recent shows in New York that address the concept of regifting (and while living in Iowa recently I witnessed firsthand the magic of lot bartering between winners at an Amish auction). In a time when tried-and-true systems of exchange are seeing a recurrence, the ponchos seem to be arguing for the right to bear numbers abstractly. Upstairs stand two other pieces: a hanging wooden colour wheel, Super Health Medallion III, held in place on the wall by rough twine that threads all around the gallery wall, is the most concrete example of the artist's structural honesty, as if to broadcast that he's not hiding anything from the viewer; and 2nd Second Sight, a group of randomly culled family snapshots lacquered into gentle curves and assembled into a small cloud rising from a set of mirrors. It seems as if Rocklen is reminding us throughout the show, in both content and physical approach, to look to another value base right now.
T.J. Carlin
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