COVID-19
Sculpture can be as improvisatory as music. For evidence look no further than Silent Acoustic, a two-person online exhibition by DJ Barrett and Emily C-D, American artists living in San Miguel de Allende, where the show had been intended for gallery display before the pandemic hit. Barrett uses wood scraps to fashion shallow boxes tenderly filled with stacks of old paper, cardboard, tangles of twine, copper piping and other junk. C-D also uses found wood, though more natural bits like trunk slices, kitchen spoons and branches, arranging them in shapes that evoke wall-mounted clocks and guitars. The artists explore the inherent spontaneity of their respective practices in a pair of videos. In one, C-D fluidly reworks a small ever-changing assemblage of wooden objects, twisted grey wire, nut shells and decorative metal doodads, complete with equally unscripted musical accompaniment. In the other, Barrett rearranges crates, long spiky aloe leaves, painted boards and flat stones, all the while telling the story of how a skinny teenager once jerry-rigged Barrett's broken truck with a bit of roadside wire. It was, he notes, “a master class in improvisation.”
—Lori Waxman 2021-01-22 1:53 PM