ART-PRESENTATION: Robert Therrien

By experimenting with materials, techniques and scale, Robert Therrien shows us everyday objects in a new light. He reveals their hidden narratives and drama, and explores the physical and emotional connection we have with the things that help us to live our lives. These ordinary objects, as recreated by Therrien, trigger memories and a sense of nostalgia, as well as humour and magic. Although familiar, they can also appear mysterious and unsettling.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gagosian Gallery Archive

Robert Therrien presents new works in his first solo exhibition in San Francisco in more than 20 years. Therrien’s sculptures are often based on functional, mass-produced objects such as chairs, tables, saucepans and other kitchenware. By celebrating these objects he seems to conjure up the decades after the World War II when the American economy was booming. In the 1950s the USA became associated with consumerism and home comforts, as well as conformity. Attesting to Therrien’s interest in cartoons and animation (especially that of Max Fleischer), new works depict puffy cloud-like forms resembling smoke signals or thought bubbles. Therrien leaves the symbols’ meaning unclear, subtly exploring their formal qualities instead, so that some clouds appear completely flat, like decals, and others more voluminous. Another painting features a pictogram from the unique code invented by migratory workers in the United States in the 19^th Century, who would draw symbols at certain locations to assist fellow drifters. Therrien shows two connected circles and three triangles, ostensibly meaning “a kind woman lives here, and she will help you if you tell a story of your hardships”. This simple yet effective cipher forms a historical precedent to his own symbolic vocabulary, epitomized by a series of four wall reliefs (cutouts of a ranch house, a chapel, a pitcher, and a barn) hanging in silhouette. Many of Therrien’s works are manifestations of his continued and in-depth explorations of everyday objects or images. His towers of kitchenware are modeled after the pots, pans, and dishes in his studio kitchen, and his beard sculptures began with his interest in representing Constantin Brancusi’s facial hair. Hanging from a cruciform armature, “No title (plaster beard)” (1999) simultaneously recalls classical sculpture, religious iconography, and Surrealist techniques of fragmentation and scale distortion. Adding to this sense of fantasy, “No title (stork beak)” (1999) is a softly lit photographic print that shows a long beak grabbing a white bundle, signaling the Greek myth of the queen Gerana, trying to steal her baby back from the goddess Hera, who had turned her into a stork. Therrien’s engagement with folklore continues in “No title (hands and tambourines)” (2018), wherein three tambourines are activated by the inclusion of simply drawn hands on a bright blue ground, and “No title (witch hat)” (2018), a mysterious black sculpture that echoes the artist’s “bent cone” form from the 1980s. These works capture Therrien’s unique ability to unite geometric abstraction, perspectival illusion, and realism—oscillating freely between genres and cleverly erasing the lines between them.

Info: Gagosian Gallery, 657 Howard Street, San Francisco, Duration: 21/3-11/5/19, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://gagosian.com