ART-PRESENTATION: Sharon Lockhart-Movements and Variations in Two Parts

Throughout her career Sharon Lockhart has immersed herself in communities to make works, including photographs, films and installations that uniquely capture groups and individuals through studied, choreographed compositions. The points of departure for Lockhart’s works stem from her ongoing interest in portraiture, representation, movement, labor and the power of women.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gladstone Gallery Archive

Sharon Lockhart’s exhibition “Movements and Variations in Two Parts” features a series of photographic and sculptural works that stem from Lockhart’s ongoing interest in portraiture, choreography, and the empowerment of women and spans two neighboring locations: Gladstone Gallery and Jan Mot in Brussels. Lockhart’s longstanding investment in place is evident both in the work presented and in the installation. Comprising casts of manzanita, buckeye, and black walnut sticks that Lockhart gathered in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, “A Bundle and Five Variations” (2018) is the artist’s first engagement with bronze sculpture. Lockhart previously featured similar sticks in her film “Little Review” (2017). In collaboration with Ravi GuneWardena from the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, these sculptures have been grouped into six distinct arrangements, five of which are derived from the larger bundle on view. Balancing form and weight, the sculptural iterations reflect both the natural and constructed relationships of the sticks. With a similar focus on structure and variation, for the photographs in “Nine Sticks in Nine Movements” (2018), Lockhart and the protagonist of the shots, Sichong Xie, worked together to generate a movement for each of the bronzes. Each position is devised with reference to a myriad of poses from social and art historical sources. Like a dance, the photographs—alongside the sculptural arrangements—capture the interplay between choreography and the physicality of the bronze sticks. Like much of Lockhart’s work, the simple and cleanly composed elements that constitute this exhibition belie a rich humanism and complex web of narratives and associations. Themes of collaboration, nature, labor, play, feminism, and agency echo amongst the elegant forms and architecture of the two galleries, prompting viewers to meditate on the role of aesthetic experience in their lives.

Info: Gladstone Gallery, 12 Rue du Grand Cerf, Brussels Duration: 7/9-20/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-18:00, https://gladstonegallery.com and Jan Mot, Place du Petit Sablon 10, Brussels, Duration: 7/9-20/10/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 14:00-18:30, Sat 12:00-18:00, www.janmot.com