During October and November George Adams Gallery will exhibit new works by Lesley Dill. The artist's fifth solo with the gallery since 1995, the exhibition includes sculptures in bronze, paper, and wire, as well as two large-scale wall pieces, one comprised of thousands of strands of thread, the other of horsehair. There are nine works in the exhibition, all completed in 2003.
Still, the largest piece in the exhibition measures 8-1/2 feet high by 30 feet long and creates an opaque curtain made up of nearly 400,000 white threads that hang from a line of wire formed words. The text, taken from Franz Kafka, repeats the phrase "I still half believed that a word would be enough to free me." The second wall piece, Vapor, is comprised of knotted white horsehair and measures 12 feet x 11-1/2 feet. In contrast to the wall of threads, the horsehair is airy and light and in this piece, the words "For a minute she seemed to me to be steaming and to be filling the whole room with her vapor," also by Kafka, seemingly hover above the delicate mass of material.
For this exhibition, Dill also continues to focus on the human figure and integrating language into sculptural form. Echoing the material lightness of the horsehair wall piece, two figures in the exhibition are made from thin-gauge wire and thread. Splurge, a kneeling figure with clenched fists and splayed calves is suspended by a string of words emerging from the head. Similarly, Air depicts a standing girl figure with multiple strands of words rising from her head.
In contrast to the more amorphous presence of the wire sculptures, there also two full-figured, unique bronze works included in the exhibition. Divide Light, a darkly patinaed female is posed seated with large block letters extending out from her body; and Residence, a wall-mounted figure is clothed in a suit cut out with words from an Emily Dickinson poem. The two bronze figures are complimented by a third piece He Felt comprised entirely of cast bronze words made in the artist?s own script of a Franz Kafka phrase: "He felt as if the way were open before him to the unknown nourishment."
Other works in the exhibition include two cast chiri paper sculptures, I, a bust with cut paper words emerging from the neck, head, and shoulders, and Clench, a forearm with clenched fist grasping lines of text cut from paper.
Running concurrently with the exhibition at the George Adams Gallery, Dieu Donne Papermill will present "Heads: an Installation by Lesley Dill," October 29 through December 20, 2003. In addition, Dill will have several recent works in "Materials, Metaphor, Narratives: Work by Six Contemporary Artists," at the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY notably a 12 x 14 foot thread and wire piece, Language Extends Even Into the Hair. The exhibition will be on view from October 4, 2003- January 4, 2004.
Exhibition Checklist
Untitled (Kneeling Figure), 2003
bronze, horsehair
33 x 31 x 11 inches
(LDs 185)
Text: "A Wounded Deer--leaps highest." - Emily Dickinson #169
Still, 2003
thread, wire, organza
8 1/2 x 340 feet x 2 inches (variable)
(LDs 181)
Text: "Faith like a guillotine as heavy as light."/
"I still half believed that a word would be
enough to free me." - Franz Kafka
Residence, 2003
white painted bronze, unique
66 x 25 x 5 1/2 inches
(LDs 182)
Text: "Air has no residence" - Emily Dickinson, #1060
Head, 2003
cast, die-cut pigmented abaca paper letters with thread;
metal shelf covered with tea-stained muslin
edition of 25
6 x 7 x 3 1/2 inches
(LDr 78)
published by Dieu Donne Papermill, New York
Clench, 2003
chiri paper, India ink
12 x 4 1/2 x 3 inches
(LDs 176)
Divide Light, 2003
bronze, unique
42 x 29 x 26 inches
(LDs 179)
Text: "Divide light if you dare" - Emily Dickinson, #854
Vapor, 2003
horsehair, wire
12 x 11 1/2 feet x 10 inches
(LDs 178)
Text: "For a minute she seemed to me
to be steaming and to be filling the whole
room with her vapor." - Franz Kafka
I, 2003
chiri paper, glue, India ink
18 x 16 1/2 x 10 inches
(LDs 183)
Text: "I still half believed that a word would be
enough to free me" - Franz Kafka
Air, 2003
wire, horsehair
53 x 16 x 9; 51 x 24 x 6 (words)
LDs 177
Text: "Air Has No Residence" - Emily Dickinson #1060
He Felt, 2003
bronze, unique
variable dimensions
(LDs 184)
Text: "He felt as if the way were opening before him
to the unknown nourishment" - Franz Kafka
