Sunday, February 21, 2010

Peter Coffin's Sculpture Silhouettes

Sculpture Silhouette (Michaelangelo, David, 1504), 2009


Sculpture Silhouette (A. Rodin, The Thinker, 1880), 2007


Sculpture Silhouette (U. Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913), 2008



Sculpture Silhouette (V. Tatlin, Monument to the Third International, 1919-1920), 2007
Sculpture Silhouette (P. Picasso, She Goat, 1950), 2009


Sculpture Silhouette (N. de St. Phalle, Snake Tree, 1984-1987), 2009

Sculpture Silhouette (S. LeWitt, Incomplete Open Cube, 1974), 2007

On display at Manhattan's City Hall Park are monumental silhouettes of iconic sculptures (aluminum and epoxy paint) by PETER COFFIN. Above are images of some of Coffin's artwork that are on display until May.
Ranging in size from eight to ten feet tall, their commanding sculptural presence is somewhat of an illusion; each work is only one inch thick. The sculptures slip in and out of view, similar to the way in which memories slip in and out of one’s mind. The decision to hold the vision in place or let it fade is left to the viewer.

The 
Sculpture Silhouettes refer to timeless icons drawn from the history of art. In transforming famous works of art into flattened silhouettes devoid of their original volume, Coffin engages the viewer to reflect and expand upon the existing associations each form’s representation evokes. This idiosyncratic sculptural survey creates an environment in which variations on seminal sculptures are experienced in a new and unexpected context. Provoking an interplay of associations, the Sculpture Silhouettes prompt the viewer to project the present onto the past, suggesting that history is constantly being rewritten.

Peter Coffin’s previous projects include constructing and flying a U.F.O. over the Baltic Sea and south‐east coast of Brazil, transforming a greenhouse into a “music for plants” performance space, and designing an elaborate machine that transports a single helium balloon along what could be its own, perhaps wind‐driven natural course. Playfully giving substance to the invisible and sometimes impossible, Coffin’s work invokes art history, fringe and pseudo science, social psychology, and epistemology to explore interpretation and perception.

Peter Coffin was born in 1972 in Berkeley, California; he lives and works in New York City. He has had recent solo exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2009); Barbican Art Gallery, London (2009); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2009); Centre dʹArt Contemporain, Fribourg, Switzerland (2008); Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2008); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007); Le Confort Moderne, Poitier, France (2007); Herald St., London (2007); The Horticultural Society of New York, New York (2007); Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris (2007); and has participated in recent group shows including Altermodern: Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London (2009); Abstract America, Saatchi Gallery, London (2009), Untamed Paradises, MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Vigo, Spain (2008); and Learn to Read, Tate Modern, London (2007). (from nycgovparks.org).

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