I miss you and I missed you
Staying Power
Three works by Susan Collis in her current exhibition entitled So it goes at Lora Reynolds Gallery that I found particularly poetic, if not a little dry. Like a lovely bottle of wine.
When I first looked at I miss you and I missed you, I just glanced and walked by, not yet knowing their titles. I thought they were both stacks of printed paper, one with an open square, the other a square filled in. I thought maybe I could grab one of each on my way out and take them home to tack up on the wall for a home-viewing experience. Or, perhaps tuck them in a book, only to wonder years later, while thumbing through, where they came from.
On going back to the title list, I became instantly more drawn to these works for their intimate titles. I miss you, a dense square of shimmering lines, quietly vibrates with the static of presence. And, just a few inches away, the empty square of I missed you rests with the past tense of loss. Two related states of being separated by time, just a few moments apart, or maybe years.
When I noticed the price of each of these pieces, I realized they were not for the taking, and to confirm this, asked the gallery attendants. One of them noted that that they are not like a Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who is of course exactly who I was thinking of, and one of my true art loves. I’m embarrassed to admit that at that moment the attendants pointed out the stacks of paper were not prints, but stacks of blank paper with thin pencil leads carefully arranged to create the squares on top of each stack. Ahha! Drawing becomes sculpture. Paper becomes pedestal. Two tricks I’m especially fond of. And precariousness! Perhaps my favorite trick of all.
Staying Power, a similar piece, but not quite as tricky, is the only other work in the show that is a stack of paper with material perched on top. In this case, that material is a crumpled piece of silvery paper, existing somewhere between a rock and a mistake. The paper has been lovingly coated in palladium leaf, a precious metal akin to platinum. And with the deeper knowledge of this unusual material, a contradiction arises between the notion of a throw-away and forever.
Because of my eleventh hour viewing habits, the show is almost down. Just one day left!
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