Tiresias wore shades
December 17, 2010
relief of the blind (2010)
In Rosalind E. Krauss’ book, Passages in Modern Sculpture, she notes, “The frontality of the relief forces the viewer to place himself directly before the work in order to see it, and thus guarantees that the effect of the composition will in no way be diluted….though the viewer does not actually move around the sculpture, he is given the illusion of having as much information as he would if he could circumnavigate the forms…”
What the (readymade) venetian blinds offer, which the (foam) relief does not, are both the act of sighting the back wall and it’s single bent leaf, exposing the backside of the relief’s material in a singular view. Thus, the problem of relief’s inability to show all facets simultaneously are actualized.
