reviews christian tomaszewski
Christian tomaszewski:
on Chapels, Caves and erotiC misery
sculpturecenter, new York
29 april – 29 JulY
Since 2004, Christian Tomaszewski has been exploring the perverse It has been formatted to fit your limits.’ A play on the standard video warning,
filmic universe of David Lynch’s 1986 cult Blue Velvet through a series of it slyly acknowledges the importance of site and viewer in determining the
meticulously crafted objects and installations inspired by its precise and installation’s final form and eventual success. A door on the right leads to
suggestive, if somewhat banal, mise en scène. Tomaszewski cites Lynch’s a room filled with a selection of the aforementioned artefacts; a cluster of
dystopic excavation of the dark underbelly of wholesome 1950s Americana prismatic extrusions on the ceiling cites Schwitters’s Merzbau.
as an apt representation of the American psyche. Deploying former mentor A left-hand door opens on a faithful recreation of the dimly lit hallways
Ilya Kabakov’s theory of the ‘total’ installation, Tomaszewski presents various of Deep River Apartments, the apartment building where much of Blue
artefacts – handcrafted replicas of lamps and other key props, scale models Velvet’s action unfolds. Somewhat incidental in the film but here the abiding
of the film’s iconic interiors – in theatrical environments that envelope and architectural motif, the hallway is a persuasive tool. Neither interior nor
overwhelm the viewer. The project’s enigmatic title, On Chapels, Caves exterior, private nor public, the hallway is a transitional nonplace, providing
and Erotic Mystery, acknowledges an important historic precedent, Kurt neither the security of home nor the freedom of outside. An architectural
Schwitters’s Merzbau (begun in 1923 and never completed), an accretive, metaphor for purgatory, the hallway induces alienation, claustrophobia and
obsessive proto-installation squirrelled away in his attic, full of mementos a compulsion to exit, as the glowing red sign commands. Each backlit door
and keepsakes. Tomaszewski’s project distinguishes itself through its piques the viewer’s curiosity and adds to the air of mystery. One door opens
postmodernist embrace of citation, its attempt to render a particular into a narrower white corridor inundated with light from a parallel array of
filmic phenomenology and narrative logic in real space, translating the neon overhead; another leads into an adjacent pitch-black space. At first
chronological flow of sound and image into the multisensory simultaneity the installation seems to assert a rather simplistic Manichean opposition,
of an installation. which, true to Blue Velvet, blurs on reflection. Initially exhilarating, the
For his final iteration of this project, Tomaszewski has transformed blinding white light begins to feel oppressive, like the white picket fence
the SculptureCenter’s basement into a windowless maze of rooms, hallways and blue sky that open and close Lynch’s film. Initially foreboding, a primal
and closed doors, fastidiously fabricated out of corrugated cardboard, an desire, possibly erotic, to know the unknown overwhelms, and finally one
ingenious choice of material: the resulting structure displays an almost fumbles through the darkness. Murtaza Vali
palpable and unnerving softness and fragility. Muggy, musty and airless,
the subterranean site recreates the overwhelming sense of dread that
permeates Blue Velvet. Entry is via a dark vestibule at the foot of the stairs.
A text panel declares: ‘This film has been modified from its original version.
On Chapels, Caves and Erotic
Misery, 2007 (installation
view), mixed media,
dimensions variable.
photo: Jason mandella.
© 2007 the artist and
sculpturecenter, new York
artreview 158
NEW_October_REVIEWS.indd 12 4/9/07 12:36:34
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