Pillow Talk
D. Dominick Lombardi
Brandon Ball�ngee, detail from show invitation, 2005, color postcard, copyright Archibald Arts.
Solvent Space has quickly become Richmond, Virginia’s hot new venue because of its experimental nature and overt industrial feel. For its first show, and in the main gallery space, installation artist James Hyde placed "Large Air Cushion" (2002), a painted linen, 20 foot by 30 foot pillow case around a vinyl bladder that is inflated to about ten feet in height with a barrel fan. The fan, which turns on about every fifteen minutes, replaces some of the air that escapes slowly. These period changes, the subtle slow heaving action gives the work its life, as if it is breathing.
The artist sees this work as a landscape painted in loosely formed veils of color, not unlike the paintings of J. M. W. Turner. A unique feature of the gallery is the elevated viewing platform that stands some twelve feet off the ground. This is where visitors climb a spiral staircase to see "Large Air Cushion" from above. Being at the opening, and seeing all of the visitors from this lofty vantage point, crowding around the perimeter of Hyde’s art gave me the impression that the work carries a strong humorous tone. It seems as if its absurd scale (it takes up most of the floor space and lacks any tangible pillow function) gives the work its weight.
And this is the artist’s intention, to view the domestic object, like a pillow, in isolation, naked and unable to function in any preconceived way. On the serious side, this inadequacy, that awkwardness that is solely based on size talks about forcefulness, abundance and gluttony, things that polarize this nation.
In an adjacent room sits a second, somewhat smaller 12 foot by 12 foot pillow titled "Massive Pillow", which rests up against the gallery’s back wall. By standing this pillow up-right, the artist moves away from the landscape format of "Large Air Cushion," and into the realm of the figurative. Leaning and bending, and billowing in the mid-section, the piece looks like a human torso, complete with belly and hips. In this instance, instead of using one large vinyl bladder, the artist fills the giant pillow case with a number of inflatable pool floats, so the form is a bit more bumpy and unruly, adding to its figurative reference. Painted in a similar fashion to the "Large Air Cushion," "Massive Pillow" becomes Surreal, like one of René Magritte’s floating stone paintings.
A third, small, ottoman sized soft sculpture "Sure" (2000) sits on the floor nearby. It’s oddly shaped, and painted in a more gestural manor which really throws a monkey wrench into the artist’s overall message. At first, I found the inclusion of this work to be odd, and even misfitting. After some time in the space, I began to see the import of such a work, because it created this strange dialog, not just because the sizes were so divergent, but because this smaller piece maintained a kind of footrest function. I left this very strange, and memorable exhibition with David and Goliath in mind.
James Hyde
"Pillow Talk"
Solvent Space
Richmond, VA
