Note on Sarah Sze's sculptural works


Sarah Sze - Disappearing Act, 2012

In both drawing and sculpture I’m interested in the depiction of gravity and weightlessness as both an operative and a disorienting force. I’m thinking about floating, sinking, rising, drifting, and the resulting fragility, disorientation, and instability. - Sarah Sze


When staring at Sarah Sze's sculptural works, sometimes I feel as if I were suddenly standing somewhere in between reality and hallucination. In her recent three dimensional piece 'Disappearing Act' (2012), several thin strings are stretching out and crossing with each other like a spider's web, each connected to some part of the art piece. Many small universes are formed in the sculpture with thoughtfully calculated details, which is perfectly balanced due to her clever use of strings, dynamics and gravitational force, all interacting with each other while being united in one large universe of the overall splendid piece. The thin strings are sometimes invisible depending on the viewing angle, and the translucent impression of her sculptural pieces causes a hallucination as if there were no gravity around the piece. It is like watching something hard to believe in this world - something mesmerizing, floating, half-reality/half-mirage, formed by countless microscopic particles of light pulled together in the air.  

In Sze's sculptural works, the interactions of all the materials (or the objects), often connected with strings, are carefully designed by Sze's extraordinary sensitivity, which result in a lyrical lightness and the fragility of the whole visual impression. The translucent, weightless, fragile elements are the keys that make her works so special. There is no suffocating feel however complex the structure is, since she leaves an elegant space in between each object, like placing a perfect pause between words. Her sculptural works stand still, casting a soft yet never diminishing powerful glow of poetry into whatever space they are a part of.


Sarah Sze - Chance Ending (Dead Space Series), 2012


(more photos of Sze's works from The Art Show)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13715378@N00/sets/72157629535960817/

(You can also see the video of Sarah Sze's working process for her installations at Asia Society at the following link.)
http://sites.asiasociety.org/sarahsze/