ART CITIES:Zurich-Martin Boyce

Martin Boyce’s sculptures, photographs and installations poetically investigate the intersections between art, architecture, design, and nature. Since the beginning of his career, he has incorporated a palette of shapes and forms that frequently recall familiar structures from the built environment (a phone booth, a chain-linked fence, a ventilation grill, to name a few) yet presents them in a way that is entirely new. Collapsing distinctions between past, present, and future, Boyce’s works seem to exist in their own autonomous world, untethered to any fixed time or place.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Eva Presenhuber Archive

For his exhibition “No Longer Fathom” at Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Martin Boyce built three modernist chairs out of steel and wood, their backs adjustable in height. The word “fathom” denotes a unit of measurement for the depth of water, and one fathom equals 1.82 meters, which corresponds roughly to the length of a human body. It was originally measured by “the space to which a man can extend his arm,” which corresponds to the original meaning of the word: in Old English, “to fathom” used to be a synonym for the verb “embrace.” Later that meaning was expanded to measure not just reach, but any capacity: whether profundity, penetration, or intellect. Leaning against three wall-mounted doors, which are suspended just above the floor, and placed directly under their doorknobs, the chairs act like improvised barriers barring anyone entrance. In dialogue with these are four painted aluminum wall panels in white, yellow, red, and green on which are mounted specially designed telephones: they look like relics from a different time, back when public telephones were still in use—but their bright colors and rhomboid shape also make them look like some sort of futuristic oracle. In addition, there is a multi-pronged metal item, tipped on a base: the weathered-looking chandelier mount is reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s bottle rack, but also of a dead insect or an anchor stranded on dry land. It all looks as though someone was constructing haunted-house elements—dead and unseeing objects which, though once created for the purposes of connection, communication, and togetherness, have now lost their function. Instead, they only convey silence, exclusion, and the history of a home that once stood for protection, community, and openness. The exhibition comes at a time when such values are no longer givens: whereas thousands of people leave their homes, others barricade themselves behind their doors. Wherever we are, feelings of insecurity, fear, and vulnerability are omnipresent, like being adrift on the ocean. A house is no longer mere shelter but is either abandoned or fortified. The promise that doors will open and the expectation that landlines will ring no longer hold true. We are stuck in a waiting room without knowing what is happening.

Photo: Left: Martin Boyce, We Are Still Here, 2005, Steel gate, powder coated black, 200 x 100 x 4 cm, © Martin Boyce, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber Right: Martin Boyce, We are Resistant. We Dry Out in the Sun (Large blue poolside bin, 2004, Powder coated black, 85 x 80 x 60 cm, © Martin Boyce, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber

Info: Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse 6, Zurich, Duration: 14/11-19/12/2020, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 12:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00, www.presenhuber.com