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Originally we accepted that the rich naturally had the most sophisticated tastes. None of this is a problem for Virgil Marti. He basks in the fading glitz of what now seems to be a modernist house of a benign nature. In his first multi-installation show, which functions as a mini-retrospective, Marti uses the house to full advantage architecturally, emphasizing the museum part in places and domestic banality elsewhere. There’s a hint of lost grandeur everywhere. In addition to his sculptural and printed works, he cleverly peppers the show with his own influences, making the show satisfyingly transparent. We see into his thought process and glean his aesthetic from humble and strange collections of card store figures, Chinese fans, and classic film of a schlock variety. The figurines – the sort that appear in flea markets and head shops and carry doleful “I Luv U” signage – form a remarkable blast from the past and seem to mock their own glass display case. This is at once cozy and creepy and takes care of the low-art part of the equation. As for the high-art connection, Marti nods to post-structuralism, which appears in the form of the seminal film Last Year at Marienbad on DVD, which I had trouble tearing myself away from. Marti walks this line with some abandon, mining the dens and living rooms of suburban nightmares and decorative past hells and then mixing it up with the odd esoteric and studied reference. His wallpaper The Course of Empire, glowing under black light, alludes to all sorts of art history here. When the piece was shown at PAFA, it both matched and was the anecdote to Furness’ fussy Academy building. In the Paley House it adorns a room completed with video clips of Soylent Green, Kubrick’s 2001, and The Man Who Fell To Earth playing in sequence. All that is missing is a few shag carpets and a lava lamp. The fabricated work like the fabulous hanging chandelier with light bulbs fitted in the antlers is more demanding and its reading depends upon catching the veiled references which can be obscure, e.g. Baroque interiors or the tombs of Capuchin Monks. The mirrored wall piece with skulls follows suit and adds a decidedly ominous tone to the decor reminding me of my own suburban upbringing. Regardless of whether the Marti is looking at the 70’s or the Renaissance, both sides adhere to a gothic sensibility which is both abject and sumptuous. He is not afraid to share his secrets and he reconstitutes a simpler age and an awkward boyhood into a present day where issues of sexuality, design, and sentiment continue to form a strange and intriguing stew. The fine line he treads between art, craft, design, and taste isn’t a problem as art often poses as other things besides painting or sculpture, but it is a matter of concern whether art is more akin to life (the low part) or a complete artifice (the mind) or somewhere in between like we are lead to believe these days. He addresses this by questioning the notion of what constitutes art and museum quality. It is the engine of concept in most of the work and this engine can backup and speed ahead. The only trouble with Marti’s collectables, as kitsch and lovable as they are, is that they shed too much light on the mood and bely some of the magic and intention. Marti’s suggestion that these figurines and art films are of a similar nature is to suggest that they are of the same intellectual timbre. Sure, anything can function as art, but there are still levels of art and degree of influence. The fact that the work is consistently dead center makes me wonder why he doesn’t really go over the top and throw in some grating music of the period? Surely, he does not lack confidence. Marti’s work is maturing and makes a devious connection between past and present that is significantly absent in younger artists. He manages to stay current and true to his muse which must be difficult. To his credit, the mood runs deep and is conveyed in spades. *Alas, no. Though it was based on The Philadelphia Story and starred Philadelphian Grace Kelly, High Society was neither filmed nor set in Philadelphia (the location was changed to Newport, RI for this musical version). -ed. Back to Commentary Section index © 2006 James Rosenthal and InLiquid.com;
image copyright © 2006 The Design Center and Bruce Benjamin |
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