DISPLAY (Temptation to Follow)
Renée Van Halm
October 14, 1987 – April 1, 1988
Renée Van Halm, Display (Temptation to Follow), 1987; wood, metals, stucco, glass, paint; 13' H x 35' L x 5' D
Artist Statement
DISPLAY (Temptation to Follow), like much of my previous work, is a synthesis of aspects of painting, sculpture and architecture and incorporates my current preoccupation with certain materials, images and structures. The title describes how visual information is presented and how our attitude to it is controlled.
This work is an elaborate framework for some rather ephemeral and discrete images. Everyday objects like a highway overpass, a set of curtains and a reflective surface of water - representing the social, the domestic and the natural - gain worth and status as they are exonerated in this context.
The actual structure can be divided into three sections, each a distinct method of interpreting representation. On the left, a display case contains a cast model of the highway overpass emerging from a metallic wall; in the centre, a sheltered area houses two niches showing the low-relief curtains; and on the right, a progression of windows encloses the painting of water. I have used a range of traditional building and art materials in order to bring everyday materials like aluminum (associated with sides of trucks) and wrought iron (from the porches and fences of past and present), into direct contact with a painterly surface (embodying the art object). These ironic juxtapositions force the viewer to re-evaluate the relative authority of each of these materials singularly and in combination.
DISPLAY (Temptation to Follow) has come very directly from looking at the city. The structures and surfaces of the city have provided models for all the images which appear, from the curve of a wall to the width of a stripe on a painted surface. The work as a whole takes into account the way in which we, as passersby, come to know our surroundings. I presume this piece will engage the viewer in just such a way - not as a meditative object, but as a quick glance through the corner of one's eye, perhaps to be drawn in for a brief moment to discover the objects displayed. To further extend this metaphor 'of looking', I have mimicked the devices and styles so familiar to us through advertising, but this time without the text and without the jingle.
