"The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas" Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Smithsonian Institution Independence Avenue and Seventh Street S.W. Open through Jan. 7, 2007 Free
Grade: A
"The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas," featuring nine international sculpture artists, opened last week at the Hirshhorn Museum on the mall. The Hirshhorn is the modern art leg of the Smithsonian Institution, and the exhibit intends to capture the innovative spirit of contemporary sculpture.
All of the pieces included in the exhibit are freestanding sculptures that were produced after the year 2000. Some of the artists, like Austrian Franz West, are influential figures in the world of sculpture. Others, like Andrea Cohen of Brooklyn, have less experience and renown but still show sophistication in their work.
Cohen is showing five mixed-media tower-like sculptures she created over a six-year period. She combines elements like tree branches, fun noodles and cellophane in her work.
"Showing the five works together represents my work better," Cohen said. "It shows a broader investigation of forms and materials. Each piece creates new challenges."
Fun noodles play a substantial role in Cohen's show.
"They are rigid and flexible at the same time. I'm drawn to inexpensive materials, and it is fun to work with kid's materials," Cohen said.
Bj?rn Dahlem of Germany is another younger artist who is happy to be included in the exhibit. Based on his interest in sciences like astrophysics, Dahlem and two assistants constructed "Schwarzes Loch," or "Black Hole" in German, in five days at the Hirshhorn.
Filling most of the room, the work consists of many wooden planks and whatever they could find at local thrift stores.
"The action is inward," Dahlem said. "It's a massive center of gravity, and sculptors face gravity every day."
Although everything in the sculpture is a typical American household item, Dahlem insists "there is no immediate social context. It's a simple idea."
In regard to the exhibition itself, Dahlem said he finds it a fantastic and sensitive approach to contemporary art and sculpture.
Los Angeles-based artist Evan Hollaway is showing several pieces in his own room at the museum. With "Abraham and Son," Hollaway has given what he considers to be a contemporary flourish to biblical drama by adding a modern steak knife and sisal rope to the two papier-m?ch? covered Styrofoam figures.
"I wanted it to be recognized as a contemporary act," Hollaway said. "The knife and rope make it seem real."
Another work by Hollaway is called "Grey Scale." This sculpture is made of painted branches held up with metal. He describes the work as contrasting natural and artificial progressions.
"It's linear information overlaid on a natural object," Hollaway said.
The exhibit fills most of the donut-shaped Hirshhorns' second floor. The rest is taken up by the accompanying exhibit, "Collection in Context," where three of the "Uncertainty" artists and associate curator Anne Ellegood have selected pieces of 20th-century sculpture that they think offer additional insight into the creative processes of recent sculptors.
