The audio tour for John Chamberlain: Choices shares perspectives on select key works from the exhibition.
www.guggenheim.org/chamberlain

Exhibition Website

John Chamberlain's Involvement with Abstract Expressionism

Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: Artist Gilberto Zorio lifts our gaze with his suspended sculpture "Macchia II," from 1968. As we approach, the installation feels hidden in the room, hanging in a corner from the ceiling and extending about 15 feet in diameter above us. The materials, created from terracotta-colored plasticized PVC and beige-gray rope, suspend lightly from the ceiling, despite the work’s imposing size.

The bulk of the installation is created from a sheet of plasticized PVC less than an inch thick, flattened and stretched about 3 feet in diameter into a somewhat circular, organic shape, like an ink blot. From a distance the entire installation resembles a large spider web, a reference enhanced by eight thin strands of rope extending from the PVC center, stretching outward and parallel to the ceiling. The ropes are evenly spaced and the distance between them begins to widen as they extend farther from the center. They are knotted onto hooks that anchor them to the ceiling. The end of each rope is cut and frayed, hanging directly down from the knot about a foot, like a tassel.

From beneath the installation, the work appears more like a parachute in how the rubber splat is held where the ropes meet. The ropes fan out from a central circular ring smaller than a bracelet; its form is visible beneath the center of the rubber body. Each rope is attached to this ring, visually dividing the underside of the rubber splat into eight triangular sections as they expand outward.

Is this installation imposing or protecting? Perhaps it depends on our perspective.

Description of Stain II (Macchia II), 1968

As part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Summer of Know series, artist Ad Minoliti and activist Adam Werner discussed social and artistic responsibility, and building community on digital platforms, with moderation by X Zhu-Nowell, Assistant Curator at the Guggenheim Museum.

Photo: Ed Marshall

Archivo de la Memoria Trans
https://archivodelamemoriatrans.tumblr.com/

Queer Ancestors Project
https://www.queerancestorsproject.org/

The Feminist School of Painting
http://fschool.kadist.org/

Cromoactivismo
https://www.facebook.com/Cromoactivismo-1430319627007557/

Campaña Nacional por el Derecho al Aborto Legal Seguro y Gratuito
http://www.abortolegal.com.ar/

Summer of Know

Conversation: Ad Minoliti and Adam Werner (2019)

Listen to audio about exhibitions and artworks at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark building is home to a collection of modern and contemporary masterpieces.

Description of Stain II (Macchia II), 1968

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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