Sculpture as Androgynous Archaeology
By Kim Carpenter
When sculptor and painter Tim Zweiback came across a piece of scrap metal from the wreckage of a demolished bridge, he was immediately struck by the anthropomorphic beauty of the discarded steel. He used the shape, reminiscent of an ancient torso unearthed at an archaeological dig, as the basis for the twelve cast bronze sculptures featured in his Omaha Transformation series, at Fluxion Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska. While the angular form for each piece remained identical, its articulation varied, challenging the viewer in an exploration of the permanence of ancient beauty in the rapidly changing modern world.
The sculptures, all cast during the last year and approximately two feet high, were balanced with the narrow tip at the base, prompting the viewer’s gaze to follow the faux torso’s sinuous twist upwards toward the shoulders. Roman numerals titled the pieces, like potshards catalogued in a museum of antiquity. The deep ochre TVII had a patina that suggested it was discovered among desert ruins after several thousand years. TIII resembled pitch black marble, its corner position allowing the piece to project a large, deep shadow against the white gallery walls. More descriptive titles were reserved for the overtly modern sculptures, with this latter grouping remarkably aggressive in conceptualization. With Gash, the sculpture appears mutilated with a vaginal-like slit down its middle, made the masculine torso seem bizarrely feminine. Slit featured dozens of two-inch blood-red triangular blades protruding from its interior, as if it was being stabbed from the inside out. Most intriguingly, Shot was riddled with several .38-caliber bullet holes, providing a jarring juxtaposition of an ancient form in the modern world.
Staggered between the sculptures were twelve 27 x 35 acrylic and oil stick paintings. Inspired by Jasper John’s iconic flags, Zweiback continued to play with varying the execution of identical forms. Here, horizontal rectangles bisecting grainy surfaces served as his point of departure. Names taken from Dr. Seuss characters animated the minimal works. Ned contrasted cerulean blue over deep navy, like sky shimmering over sea. Yertle was softer, with serene cream on celadon, while Horton was the opposite, featuring shiny, luminous gray on metallic white. Zizzer-Zazzer-Zass wasn’t as sassy as its title, with blue/gray looming over white and soft gray lines scored horizontally throughout. The Prairie of Prax, which served as the show’s culmination piece, loosely unified the geometry of both bodies of work. The 62 x 74 painting was composed of two triangles in the left-hand corner with rectangles in muted, primary colors dominating the rest of the canvas.
Zweiback’s sculptures and his paintings, while highly iterative, were anything but repetitious. Whether subtly or obviously altered, the deviations on the same form, be it a shard of resurrected steel or a sparely painted rectangle, allowed each piece to emerge insular and unique.
