Petah Coyne at Galerie Lelong and Julie Saul - New York - exhibition - Brief Article

Walking through Petah Coyne's ethereal show at Lelong's new Chelsea space was like moving in a dream, trying in vain to distinguish between things living and dead, moving and still, visible and invisible, worldly and spiritual. Large-scale monochromatic works that were variously freestanding, suspended from the ceiling or leaning against walls were composed of Coyne's inimitable repertory of decorative artificial flowers, candles, handmade birds, pearls, bows, ribbons and tassels, all covered in translucent layers of white wax.

In "White Rain"--an exhibition title that recalls the "black rain" that fell after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima--the hush of winter seemed to have descended suddenly onto an unsuspecting natural world. While beautiful, the show was dominated by the sense of loss and solemnity that comes with the passage of time and knowledge of the transitory nature of existence.

The works in the main gallery were hauntingly exquisite, with notes of color (from the freshly "frozen" petals, branches and birds) just barely visible through the white blanket of death. Buried, in several works, beneath the wax veneer of ice and snow were standing Madonna figures that added a sense of spirituality to the exhibition. Untitled #945S-01 (Chinese Landscape) appeared to be a white, textured, homogeneous composition of protruding branches and boughs heavy from the weight of snow, on a monumental, freestanding white plaster wall. But one's eyes stopped at a curious curving form that--after peering into an aperture on the opposite side of the wall and seeing the devout face of the Virgin--one could identify as the Madonna's back.

Everything animate and inorganic was equalized in Coyne's frozen tableaux. In Untitled #996S-01 (Sisters/Twins), for example, a coating of wax covered an oval mass of flowers, candles and bows on the floor and rose up as a continuous surface enveloping two Madonnas. Forces of femininity or faith or both, the figures preside over and merge with nature even as their corporeal beings approach invisibility.

The icy stillness of "White Rain" was a poignant complement to the blurred motion captured in Coyne's photographs in a concurrent exhibition at Julie Saul titled "Spring Snow." She snapped pictures of whirling young women dressed as debutantes and brides while she was moving as well. In these works, Coyne conveys the feeling of looking back on youth and joy from a distant vantage point in time. The installation included 15 prints of various sizes surrounding two hanging wax sculptures from 1996, one black and one white. The whole spoke eloquently of the duality of celebrating life while cognizant of one's mortality.

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