written by Alison OwenIn Tracey Goodman's installation "Untitled (disconnect)", frail plaster conduits and
outlets are suspended from the ceiling, mapping out a path in the vault of smack-mellon's cavernous building. Like ecclesiastical
architecture, whose function was to train the congregant's thoughts on
heavenly things, the work pulls the eyes and thoughts up. As we examine these spaces, however, we are met with materials and objects of a humble nature.
The prosaic elements relating to a building's function have been cast and reimagined.
By drawing attention to the unused upper half of the building, Tracey Goodman investigates the way that we interact with space, focusing her attention particularly on the things that indicate former uses and histories. Once our attention is caught by the thin curving rods, we become aware of the building's functioning conduit pipes and outlets, and the installation expands to take these into its composition. The conduits installed by Goodman are layered over the actual electrical grid. Like a palimpsest, the old can be glimpsed through the new. Smack Mellon was once a boiler building, and the traces of its previous life can be found throughout the space. The room is incredibly tall, with 35 foot ceilings – more height than is required of most works of art. While the rest of the work in the show remains in the lower third of the building, Tracey's installation alone reclaims the upper reaches of the space.
In another part of the building, what seems like an overabundance of light switches and fuse boxes proves to be real. But it is supplemented by stacks of cast components, creating a profusion of balancing cubes. As with the suspended conduit piece, Tracey plays with proliferation and function. Failure and excess are inherent in these works – the conduit pipes never meet, the switches cannot be turned off and on, the exit sign is a mute white plaster.
The dicotomies between presence and absence, negative and positive, are important conceptual through lines in Goodman's work.The form of "Untitled (disconnect)" , like her earlier piece "after the flood", reads as a cubic volume, but contains absence. The airy tracery of her composition somehow fills the overhead space even as it exposes its vast emptiness. Goodman has created a fragile yet confident drawing in space, adding another layer to the meaning and history of this place.
outlets are suspended from the ceiling, mapping out a path in the vault of smack-mellon's cavernous building. Like ecclesiastical
architecture, whose function was to train the congregant's thoughts on
heavenly things, the work pulls the eyes and thoughts up. As we examine these spaces, however, we are met with materials and objects of a humble nature.
The prosaic elements relating to a building's function have been cast and reimagined.
By drawing attention to the unused upper half of the building, Tracey Goodman investigates the way that we interact with space, focusing her attention particularly on the things that indicate former uses and histories. Once our attention is caught by the thin curving rods, we become aware of the building's functioning conduit pipes and outlets, and the installation expands to take these into its composition. The conduits installed by Goodman are layered over the actual electrical grid. Like a palimpsest, the old can be glimpsed through the new. Smack Mellon was once a boiler building, and the traces of its previous life can be found throughout the space. The room is incredibly tall, with 35 foot ceilings – more height than is required of most works of art. While the rest of the work in the show remains in the lower third of the building, Tracey's installation alone reclaims the upper reaches of the space.
In another part of the building, what seems like an overabundance of light switches and fuse boxes proves to be real. But it is supplemented by stacks of cast components, creating a profusion of balancing cubes. As with the suspended conduit piece, Tracey plays with proliferation and function. Failure and excess are inherent in these works – the conduit pipes never meet, the switches cannot be turned off and on, the exit sign is a mute white plaster.The dicotomies between presence and absence, negative and positive, are important conceptual through lines in Goodman's work.The form of "Untitled (disconnect)" , like her earlier piece "after the flood", reads as a cubic volume, but contains absence. The airy tracery of her composition somehow fills the overhead space even as it exposes its vast emptiness. Goodman has created a fragile yet confident drawing in space, adding another layer to the meaning and history of this place.
