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Saul Chernick, Grotto: Shrine
Exhibition
Grotto. Shrine
18 Feb 2024 – 25 Mar 2024
Regular hours
- Sunday
- 12:00 – 15:00
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 15:00
Address
- 348 South 4th Street
- New York
New York - 11211
- United States
About
Shrines: Table altars transmit to invisible forces; Grottos: Fake caves submerged by artifice. Up and out, around and down, shrines and grottos use scale to relate to the body and to transport to celestial, underworld, ritualistic and imaginative realms. Contemplative versus immersive - is the gallery a shrine or a grotto?
The shrines traffic in obsolete electronics, dried grains, shadowy landscapes, and the archeology of the heart. Ben Pedersen and Saul Chernick practice an alchemy of labor, transmuting their ingredients beyond recognition into portals and dioramas of jewelry-level craftsmanship. The grottos are shaggy and jagged, tactile and fiercely material: paper pulp and shiny metal or glitter and trinkets. Orli Swergold and Laurel Sparks forge stalagmites and cement incrustations as they reveal and ornament the cavern.
Shrines and grottos are not necessarily opposites. “Shrine” can also mean “tomb”, and shrines may also be found in grottos. The artist may also be a vessel or a medium: the sorcerer's apprentice inhabiting the studio, striking with dwarf hammers and burrowing with troll talons.