Ester Partegàs
The Passerby
Foxy Production
June 4 – July 11, 2015
Preview: Thursday, June 4, 2015 – 6 – 8 p.m.
Department of Sculpture + Extended Media Assistant Professor Ester Partegàs’ fourth solo exhibition at Foxy Production comprises two new series of sculptures inspired by objects so ubiquitous they are virtually invisible. Partegàs rescues these overlooked items from being so mundane and unremarkable that they are almost non-objects, what writer Georges Perec calls “the infra-ordinary,” inviting us to look beyond the illusion of the everyday.
“The Passerby” is a series of cast polyurethane sculptures based on the familiar synthetic tarpaulins that are used to shelter and protect goods and people. Partegàs transforms these resistant materials into translucent and ethereal objects of beauty. Made by placing resin directly onto tarpaulins and adding a little pigment, they show their sources’ creases and wear.
A container’s role is to support other materials; yet, here they are given center-stage; no longer secondary objects, they are now hand-made, unique subjects of our attention. Inside the containers and spilling out over the floor of the gallery space, the labels act as traces of the journeys of people and goods, accounts of people and objects uniting and separating.
Foxy Production is located at 623 W 27th Street, New York City and is open Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Image: Ester Partegàs