Yuriko Yamaguchi at Numark

A couple of years ago, sculptor Yuriko Yamaguchi started working with the imagery of pods and webs. Her webs consist of various shapes of kinky wire; the ambiguous pods are abaca-pulp fabrications of small organic shapes. As you entered Numark for Yamaguchi's second show there, the huge mouth of a scribbly, smoky cone confronted you. Web #5(2003) is a stunning work, weird and evocative. It is 21 feet long, with the mouth 8 feet in diameter. The black wires that shape the piece--and eerily seemed to modify the very air you breathed as you stood beside it--are linked and twisted in a bent, jagged, three-dimensional drawing of improvisatory vigor. From the wires the pods hang like strange fruit, adding to the living feel of the work. The pods dotted throughout the cone are 3-inch papier-mache castings resembling nuts or figs--or maybe clams, to go alone with the underwater, floating feel of the piece.

As you walked around, each view offered new revelations. From the sides, near the back end of the cone, you saw its weightless grace as it seemed to spew volcanically from the wall. As you moved, the web appeared to move as well, as the shadows on the floor seemed to dance.

The jumble of wires, when seen up close, had a twang and bite. You were more acutely aware of the scale of the work, and of the artist's skilled touch at shaping the pods and wire. The scrawls seemed rough and clamoring. Yet when you stepped back, the magical waft pervaded your senses. At the mouth of the cone, you felt included within the vibrant twirl as you peered back to the far beginnings. This was an experience that blended the mysterious powers of nature and art.

There were other accomplished works in the exhibition, such as a hanging globe of tangled wire and clams about 4 feet in diameter and tidy little wall pieces of the same materials: there was, for example, a barbell with a lump in the middle and a mesh circle with a bar across the center that cantilevered out from the wall. But with so triumphant an achievement as Web #5 nearby, it took effort to consider these smaller works. The huge, masterful floating tangle drew you back, again and again.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group