SARAH SZEINFINITE LINE
curated by Melissa Chiu
Asia Society Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street) - New York
December 13, 2011–March 25, 2012
Sarah Sze is known for her elaborate installations in which everyday materials—such as plastic bottle caps, sheets of paper, strings, tape measures, cotton swabs, and scissors—are hung from the ceiling, mounted in corners, or nestled into discreet spaces. Sarah Sze: Infinite Line is the first exhibition on Sze’s work from drawings to sculpture to installation.
Sze combines spontaneity and systemization in her work, which often suggests movement and the ephemeral. Energized chaos becomes painstaking order, when, upon closer inspection, seemingly turbulent scenarios reveal precisely placed objects. Her intimate, sculptural installations invite viewers to reevaluate their relationship to their surroundings.
The exhibition is divided into two parts. A smaller gallery houses earlier works on paper including graphite, ink and collage, lithograph and silkscreen. A larger gallery features several new works that play with the boundaries between drawing and sculpture. The discrete works disassemble the traditional format of the scroll. Starting from the wall and pulling the drawing on to the floor, they examine illusionary space, perspective and the representation of landscape.
The exhibition is curated by Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum Director and Vice President of Global Art Programs, and is accompanied by a full-color, 143-page catalogue that includes an interview with the artist conducted by Melissa Chiu and essays by Asia Society Associate Curator Miwako Tezuka, and Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University.
Born in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, Sze was initially trained in architecture. She received a BA from Yale University (1991) and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts (1997), where she received the Silas Rhodes Award. Sze has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions including at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Carnegie Museum of Art, and in the 48th Venice Biennial and the 2009 Biennale de Lyon. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2003. Currently based in New York, she teaches at Columbia University School of the Arts.
