Is PaceWildenstein now focusing on outer space?

PaceWildenstein has some quirky exhibits. The last time I happened to open its two ton gate-like front doors to reveal the cavernous space inside, I chanced upon three floating globes about 5 ft in diameter eerily balanced high up in a darkly lit gallery space with internally superimposed NASA high resolution pictures of surface morphology/geology of the planet Earth, Europa (natural satellite of the planet Jupiter) and Ganymede (Jupiter's largest satellite, and the largest satellite in the Solar System). Apparently I had witnessed Robert Whitman’s “Turning” exhibition with trepidation, bewilderment and confusion. I was turned off and after a little while decided to turn myself to find the way out… In short, I went in feeling lost and came out more so.

I am sure the new exhibit at PaceWildenstein is equally quirky. British artist Keith Tyson has managed to fill the cavernous gallery and its walls with sculptures in an exhibition that goes by the name ‘Large Field Array’. A grid like installation of more than 230 sculptures, each measuring two square feet placed at roughly four-foot intervals in a roughly cubic array on the floor and walls of the gallery. The important fact here seems to be that each sculpture is completely different from its immediate neighbors. The words bizarre, quirky, whimsical and hilarious competed for attention in my brain.

The title used by the artist to describe the exhibition "Large Field Array" actually refers to the 'Very Large Array'; a multi-purpose radio astronomy observatory located in New Mexico, USA designed to allow investigations of many astronomical topics that include radio galaxies, quasars, pulsars, supernova remnants, gamma ray bursts...

I did not get the astronomical connection between the telescope and the random sampling of he sculptures on display, but maybe PaceWildenstein has decided to look outward and upward - towards the stars. I could not come to any other conclusion after running into these two exhibitions held one after another...

By the way, the artist on being confronted with the question of astronomical implications had the following wise words... "Each one of the pieces is the sum of all possible forces acting upon it. Each sculpture is basically the result from the things around it"... Which seems to tell you a lot and exactly nothing...

Also, PaceWildenstein is one of those galleries that do not allow you to photograph the works inside - a fetching lady at the front desk (she had an ‘I would rather be with Donatella’ look) demurely gave me a card with the name of the gallery’s public relations executive and told me to give them a tinkle... I did not try and sneak any pictures in as "Capla Kesting throws blogger out of gallery" stories filled my mind...

I ran out into the welcoming arms of W. 22nd street outside… Confronted with non photographic prospects, you do the next best thing possible - rip a couple of images from their website.

Kieth Tyson's Large Field Array

Robert Whitman's Turning