The exhibition presented new works created specifically for SculptureCenter's lower level galleries in Michael E. Smith's first major solo museum exhibition in the United States. These new sculptures and videos furthered Smith's investigation into the complex existence of things.
Many of the objects in Smith's sculptures are decelerated and slackened until they reach a trancelike state. Sometimes frozen, and sometimes literally or figuratively spurned into action, though actual movement or in association to other objects or images, the primary function of the everyday things we encounter in his work is interrupted and reconfigured. These periodic suspensions of movement and time only serve as reminders of the inherent rhythms of things and bodies. To articulate this further, Smith has created new video works in addition to the sculptures that will be on view. Highlighting the physiological qualities of machines, they isolate and intensify a range of internal mechanisms.
The works on view responded to the subterranean architecture of the lower level exhibition galleries, abstractly examining notions of history and functionality. Smith's installation shifted the given conditions and atmospheres at SculptureCenter, presenting a space that reassessed relationships maintained within our inner and outer worlds.
Michael E. Smith (born 1977 in Detroit) is based in Hopkinton, NH has had solo exhibitions at La Triennale in Milan, Italy (2014), CAPC museé d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2013), and CAM St. Louis (2011). Recent group exhibitions include humanonhumain at Foundation D'Enterprise Ricard, Paris, France (2014), Being Here & Being Thus. Sculpture, Object & Stage at Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany (2014), Realization is Better than Anticipation at MOCA Cleveland (2013), A Disagreeable Object at SculptureCenter (2012), and the Whitney Biennial (2012).
