Peter Stanfield at Zolla/Lieberman - Chicago - Brief Article

Peter Stanfield has fallen in love with his materials and his craft. He builds box-shaped, wall-hung, plastic and aluminum constructions, usually comprising two connected parts. We see fanciful texts in frames, dye-filled glass vials illuminated from behind, and dainty electric switches and off-on indicator lights. Rods, nuts, bolts, Phillips-head screws and other reinforcing devices hold these elegant constructions together. Stanfield's work is a joy to behold.

Stanfield writes his own texts, which are indebted to Jorge Luis Borges and John Barth. Once he gets an idea, art making and writing express the same mood and move forward together. The artist says he can "doodle sculptures all day," but writing is a "slow, difficult process."

Moon in a Cup (2002) is a small, vertical, two-box construction with the upper unit made of walnut and the lower one of aluminum where the text is displayed in a frame. The walnut box has a window through which we see three glass vials on a shelf lit from behind. Each vial contains greenish dye and a single electronic component. Below the window is a square brushed-aluminum plate with a plastic thumb-operated light switch at its center.

A black power cord connects the walnut and aluminum boxes. Finned circular plates on the sides of each box allow heat to escape. A vertical aluminum rod with mounting hardware and black rubber tips at each end holds the construction together. Stanfield's text reads: "I see the reflection of the moon in my coffee and am impressed with the knowledge that this bit of light came all the way from the moon to land in my cup."

These works suggest scientific instrumentation or futuristic structures. Stanfield admires Chicago sculptor Gary Justis (his number one influence), as well as Trova, Bickerton and Aycock. In architecture, he likes Mies, Frank Lloyd Wright, Renzo Piano and Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Milwaukee Art Museum's new Quadracci Pavilion.

Stanfield began this body of work by putting things in boxes. As his work took shape, he decided to "really do this well," and made his constructions comically fussy and overbuilt--boxes within boxes, frames within frames, so sturdy that they should last for all time. It's easy to imagine the neighborhood eccentric making these sculptures. Possibly, in creating this work, Stanfield has gotten in touch with his inner codger.

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