Description
Los Voces uses chaos to create form, evident in the interplay between shapes, textures, and materials. There is something of a disconnect between the skeletal forms made up of frayed and twisted wires and the fullness of the sculpture as a whole. Despite the industrial nature of materials, the piece conveys an overall sense of lightness and ephemerality. Los Voces represents the transformative moment at which Pfaff’s sculpture departed from her formerly planar style, moving toward a distinctly linear method: the sculpture takes Ogni Cosa’s fluid geometry a step further, rendering it in three dimensions.
A complex frame of wire circles physically supports and gives way to interconnected spirals and billowing clouds of wire. There is a stillness evident in parts of the suspended sculpture: the frame of large, open circles and smaller, densely woven spheres are made of a noticeably thicker gauge of wire, giving them a sense of permanence and stability. Meanwhile, the springlike, looping spirals and hair-thin lengths of wire that are threaded through and bundled around these heavier elements suggest continuous movement. This sense of movement gives the industrial materials an organic quality: the cascade of wires on the left side of the sculpture evokes a stream of water, especially in relation to the umbrella-like forms positioned above and below it. These thin wire threads are in a dynamic state, transforming constantly as one moves around the sculpture. When bundled around the spherical elements, they resemble tumbleweeds. When threaded through the wire circles, they look like spider webs. The heavy industrial supports that anchor the piece to the wall are reminiscent of a scale attempting to balance the activity taking place beneath them and are almost swallowed by it in the process, giving this skeletal structure a sense of liveliness and movement.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1992
- Dimensions:
- 96 x 123 x 96 in
- Medium:
- Lacquered steel, steel and aluminum wire
- Credit Line:
- Lent by the artist. Photograph by Laura Shea. © Judy Pfaff