Box Project | Site-Specific Installations | 2003 - 2007
Lewis, Katherine. SUPERSONIC, Exhibition catalog, Summer 2004.
If one could say that the work to be done by art includes the solution of social problems, Bari Ziperstein’s work gets at these larger issues through the seemingly simple act of solving spatial problems. The artist creates process inflected installations by designating an area for storage and then struggling to fit a given amount of brightly painted, readymade cardboard boxes within the given space. The surrounding architecture, the materiality of painting, and the physicality of sculpture are all taken into consideration. The finished piece appears to us in a state of storage, in which work is ready for imminent display but not directly offered up for viewing. The taped and sealed boxes suggest the presence of hidden material, regardless of whether or not the boxes are actually empty. Our access as viewers is indirect and this distance is underscored by the reflected glow of neon paint that has been applied to the sides of the boxes.
Ziperstein’s works possess an undercurrent of economy, a trait one could trace back to Minimalism or even Modernism in general. The materials are cheap and plentiful; the neon paint quickly gets your attention. The carefully considered arrangement of boxes tries to “make the most” of the space, yet at the same time asks whether this efficiency is really an ideal. Surely there is something that makes us feel good about maximizing an area, but her work points out the irony of this. There is a parsimony of space applied to a collection of objects that are useless and excessive in the end and are, therefore, put into storage. Ultimately we arrive at an interesting complication of a common event, the accumulation of unnecessary goods, which leads us to question the aura of objects both within and outside of the context of art.
Press
Windborne, Jamie. Review, Art News Extra, Saturday June 25, 2005 (reproduction)., 2005
Wheelock, Bill. “The Serial Box Attitude,” artist book, June 2005, ed. 325
Roth, Charlene. Review, Artweek, May 2005, p. 19, 20, 2005
Baker, Kenneth. Review, The San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday July 23, 2005, p. E1, 2005
