Detail of Zadok Ben David's Blackfield, 2008
There are a number of worthwhile shows up at
Bergamot Station at the moment, but none pack the visceral wallop of
Zadok Ben David's
Blackfield. Appropriated from Victorian botanical illustrations, some thousands and thousands of black laser-cut steel silhouettes are evenly spaced over the gallery floor. The perfectly smooth thin layer of sand these plants "grow" from adds to the water-starved weedy lot effect. The large rectangular installation allows enough room to circumnavigate the display, and when one views the piece from the other side, Ben David provides us with another uncanny moment, as the obverse of the miniature sculptures are airbrushed with a rainbow of greens, blues, yellows, and reds. While the work exhibits both fragility and
monumentality, randomness and precision, it also touches on man's pseudo-scientific attempts at making sense of the natural world.
Detail of Zadok Ben David's Blackfield, 2008
Ever since man threw the first virgin in a volcano to keep the magma at bay, there has been a less-than-accurate understanding of nature, including man's dominant and guiding role. From
recapitulation theory to
phrenology, the way things appear have been used to support the status
quo, as colonial powers have collected and categorized everything from the
Victoria Water Lily to the
Hottentot Venus.
Ben David presents us with a dichotomy: the monochromatic and the chromatic, science and art. In the end it is up to us to evaluate and interpret, making sense of the world presented before us.
Detail of Zadok Ben David's Blackfield, 2008
is on view at
Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Bergamot Station through May 16.
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