Game-Based Sculpture
Bozidar Boskovic
Gabriel Orozco, Oval With Pendulum.
"Art" and "play" are almost impossible to define–both are characterized by infinite variability, risk and invention. Most of us consider adult play as respite or indulgence, but having fun is no trivial pursuit. In fact, it’s crucial to our mental creativity, health and happiness. Unburdened by consciousness or self-consciousness, we act spontaneously. Play restores our optimism and changes our perspective, stimulating creativity.
Gabriel Orozco detects banal situations and transforms them into metaphorical illustrations that reveal the poetics of the ordinary. He is currently showing at the Palacio de Velazquez, Museo Nacional Centre de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, where he proposed that the Palacio de Cristal be centered on a series of pieces based on the concept of the "game" surrounded by various objects that display his artistic path, transforming the galleries into a veritable playground.
Orozco, who works in Mexico City, Paris and New York, uses his works to lure the visitors into their own amusement. His game-based sculptures encourage interaction among viewers and between viewer and sculpture. Regardless of the medium, with each creation, Orozco plays with the traditional prescriptions of formal construction, incorporating humor, whimsy, and countless unexpected ingredients.
In addition to site-specific installations, Orozco’s game-based sculptures, works that have garnered him fame over the past ten years, continue to tour international galleries and museums: Orozco has recently had retrospectives at MoCA, Los Angeles (2000) and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, (2000); his work will next be included in the upcoming Venice Biennial. And galleries continue to exhibit works like Ping Pong Table (1998) and Oval With Pendulum (1996) not simply for their artistic merit, but for their changeability. Arguably, any artwork changes from encounter to encounter, viewer to viewer. Orozco’s game-based sculptures offer endless variables; they depend upon visitors’ engagement and interaction. Orozco challenges the participant: it is up to the players to decide how to negotiate the game and how to divide it amongst the participants. In Ping Pong Table (1998) Orozco explores the dynamics of table tennis. The sculpture consists of four tennis tables and a lily pond in the center. Gallery-goers engage with strangers–hitting speeding balls and splashing the pond at opponents; choosing forehand or backhand strike, which of the tables to attack. Orosco’s Oval With Pendulum (1996)–the sculpture is a ovoid pocket-less billiard table with two white balls and a third red ball attached to a pendulum, which hangs, suspended above the table–warps and reincarnates the game of billiards. The viewer’s role is not simply to stand back and analyze the significance of each object, but to enjoy a game of billiards. The red ball is struck by one of the white cue balls and the graceful arcs of the pendulum turn the game into a kinetic, three-dimensional sculptural-exercise in spatial perception. The game is engaging and endless.
How we play is related, in myriad of ways, and at the same time it defines our core sense of self. Play is an exercise in self-definition; it reveals what we choose to do, not what we have to do. We not only play because we are, but we play the way we are. Orozco’s works–as they migrate between countries, cities, communities–reveal who we are and free us to connect and to change.
