art
A Naked Man With A Saw And Five Minus One Baby Coffins
Five minus one baby coffins smoking and a naked man with a saw. He used the ryōba (a Japanese double-sided saw) a screwdriver, and a hacksaw blade to take apart the sixth coffin. When I arrived, Lucas Murgida was bent over one of the coffin sides, arduously sawing off its molding. The parts of the disassembled coffin were neatly arrayed around him: a row of screws, the bottom, the top, neatly aligned.
In a four-hour performance yesterday at Autzen Gallery at PSU, Los Angeles artist Murgida disrobed, lit the sage smudges in the coffins with a blow torch, and began to disassemble one of the coffins. According to Gary Wiseman who was there longer than I was, Murgida kept relighting the smudges when the curls of smoke coming from the coffins died away.
The title of his exhibition will be perfectly creepy for those who see the coffins in the artist’s absence. But for those who saw the performance, GRIP, GRASP, GROPE, AND FONDLE, clearly refers to the artist working with the wood in the absence of a workbench and clamps, for example trying to brace the wood between his feet and calves while he bent over it with a saw, or jamming a screwdriver between two loosened pieces to pry them apart.
The installation was beautifully lit with the blond wood coffins against the concrete floor, Murgida’s skin, a tone not far from that of the wood. The curls of smoke (though nearly asphyxiating) were disturbing and poetic at the same time. And when Murgida took a break from sawing, one could hear the coffins emitting tiny clicking sounds.
Could unbuilding the coffin bring its tiny contents back to life? Is this a protest against the necessity to build such small coffins in the first place. Is the artist naked because never are we more metaphorically naked than when we deal head-on with death? Am I being to literal? What of the smoke? Ashes to ashes? One thinks of the comfort of work, especially physical labor, in the face of trauma. I know that Murgida makes art related to his employment, and I know that he’s done cabinetry, so it’s no surprise the coffins were cunningly crafted. The ideas embedded in the installation, while less linear, seem equally so.
GRIP, GRASP, GROPE, AND FONDLE
Lucas Murgida
Autzen Gallery
2nd Floor PSU Neuberger Hall, Room 205, 724 SW Harrison
Leave a Reply