ART-PRESENTATION: Allora & Calzadilla-Specters of Noon
Through a complex research-oriented practice, Allora & Calzadilla critically address the intersections and complicities between the cultural, the historical and the geopolitical. The interdisciplinary nature of their interventions is echoed by an expanded use of the artistic medium that includes performance, sculpture, sound, video and photography. Their dynamic engagement with the art historical results in an acute attention to both the conceptual and the material, the metaphoric as well as the literal.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Menil Collection Archive
In the 4th Century, Evagrius Ponticus, in laying out the seven deadly sins, described the ‘most oppressive’ of all temptations as acedia, a spiritual dryness and lack of care towards the world that plagues during the hot midday hours and is characterized by a feeling of psychic exhaustion and listlessness. Writing under the harsh conditions of the desert, he personified this terrible mood as the workings of the :noonday demon” or “Meridian Demon” who ‘makes the sun appear sluggish and immobile as if the day had fifty hours. Allora & Calzadilla in their exhibition “Specters of Noon” present seven sculptural works that revolve around this concept, serving as a manifestation of noon’s hold over humankind and as a metaphor for the uncertainties defining our time. Created specifically for the Menil Collection’s main building, Allora & Calzadillause sounds, cast shadows, and novel sculptural materials to evoke an awe-inducing atmosphere of bewilderment and beauty. The artists visited the Menil Collection repeatedly over the course of four years to develop this exhibition and studied the museum’s archives and holdings of Surrealist works of art. They explored the historic role that Surrealism played in the Caribbean in the years surrounding World War II, including its pivotal role in anti-colonialism, and the movement’s fascination with the importance of noon. Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla extended their research by connecting this history to the current moment by seeking out shared connections between Houston and their own home of San Juan, both port cities that have been deeply impacted by energy commerce and the effects of a changing climate. Among the works that have emerged is “Blackout” (2020), created from a Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority transformer that exploded during Hurricane Maria in 2017. The artists bisected the transformer’s steel exterior to expose its interior workings, which they cast in bronze. The shiny metallic conductive wire, radiator pipes, and insulators are juxtaposed with the matte exterior casing, creating a sculptural division that references the exhibition’s theme of solar noon, when the sun, at its zenith, cuts the day in half. The deep hum of reverberating electricity buried in the relic will serve as a tuning device for a live vocal performance composed by Grammy Award winning, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and Oscar nominated avant-garde composer David Lang, and is inspired by the sounds of electricity and a volatile power grid. “Graft” (2019), is composed of thousands of yellow blossoms that were cast from the flowers of an oak tree native to the Caribbean. Created through a fabrication process originally developed for scientific purposes, the hand-painted petals are reproduced in seven degrees of decomposition, from the freshly fallen to wilted and brown. Installed as if a wind has swept the fallen blooms across the gallery floor, the sculpture alludes to deforestation as a consequence of colonial exploitation. “Entelechy” (2020) is a monumental coal sculpture cast from a tree struck by lightning. The artists sourced a tree species found in the forest of Montignac, France, where, in 1940 during World War II, a group of teenagers came across a massive tree uprooted during a storm. A shaft of light piercing the hole in the ground revealed the now-famous Lascaux Cave, an underground cavern with hundreds of prehistoric wall drawings. Vocalists will perform on this tree-shaped coal in the galleries. The musical score, constructed by Lang, references the only image of a human figure found in the cave, a hybrid of a bird and a man. A soundscape, also organized by David Lang, will permeate the gallery space, augmenting the hypnotic atmosphere of disorientation that the artists are creating. Lang worked closely with the artists to develop an eight-hour cycle of constantly evolving sounds that run daily in the exhibition, and according to Lang, “sonically sculpt the day”. A combination of instrumental, vocal, and electrical recordings, the soundsrespond to and activate the works of art on view. The exhibition will conclude, in its final weeks, with a series of live vocal performances, all composed by Lang in collaboration with the artists, and led by Philadelphia-based chorus master Donald Nally.
Info: Curator: Michelle White, Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross Street, Houston, Duration: 26/9/20-20/6/21, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 11:00-19:00, www.menil.org