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In her second solo show, “Vice Versa,” Sofi Zezmer entices the viewer into her futuristic universe, magnified under a powerful microscope. The 18 objects in her exhibition are constructed from jazzy, color-saturated plastic, meticulously assembled, fitted with clamps and bits, and pieces culled from medical suppliers and toy factories. They vary in size from 12 inches to 12 feet. If the objects were not so seductive at first glance, the viewer might have the impression of having stumbled upon the laboratory of a mad scientist. Ms. Zezmer is clearly inspired by biotechnology, space travel, the omnipresent accumulation of mass-produced objects and the effects of the information overload.
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Sofi Zezmer, Vice Versa – E. K. Clark
In her second solo show, “Vice Versa,” Sofi Zezmer entices the viewer into her futuristic universe, magnified under a powerful microscope. The 18 objects in her exhibition are constructed from jazzy, color-saturated plastic, meticulously assembled, fitted with clamps and bits, and pieces culled from medical suppliers and toy factories. They vary in size from 12 inches to 12 feet. If the objects were not so seductive at first glance, the viewer might have the impression of having stumbled upon the laboratory of a mad scientist. Ms. Zezmer is clearly inspired by biotechnology, space travel, the omnipresent accumulation of mass-produced objects and the effects of the information overload.
In her own words, she is interested in “classifying information, magnifying structural patterns in their hybrid accumulations.” Her work disorients our sense of order by disrupting our habitual modes of perception. These conflicting directions—beauty and order on one side and the threat of the unfamiliar and possibly dangerously chaotic on the other—inform her work. Consider, for example, Rhizome Light Yellow: a delicate, ethereal mass composed of nylon and plastic filigree, punctuated by hundreds of black metal dots, which appear as sinister intruders. This, as matter magnified under a microscope, could appear as a malignancy run amok. In spite of its airy loveliness, it hints at darker issues. The sterile perfection of the materials alludes to a fundamental alienation from the organic and the natural; in which the flawed human is displaced by post-industrial efficiency.
Sofi Zezmer’s work evokes the early Constructivists in spirit, if not in appearance then in the articulation of constructed space. Naum Gabo comes to mind. However, her sensibility is very particular; the work feels fresh and totally inventive. The artist succeeds in transforming the banal things we already know with a playful touch and quirky juxtapositions. Her strange, evocative pieces resonate within our social space, lending her art a certain gravitas.
Echo, Serendipity Orange and Vice Versa suggest science fiction and intergalactic travel, replete with odd cosmic prototypes. Ms. Zezmer’s formal vocabulary also contains a pictorial dimension echoing Kandinsky’s early constructivist period while curiously alluding to cartoons at the same time. In Vice Versa, among the loops and turns, a red wire segues into a bevy of crimson disks. Carefully placed, here and there, are tiny mirrors providing a primitive surveillance system and adding a humorous touch.
Serendipity Orange follows in tandem the Sci-Fi metaphor, combining red, organic loops with orange blobs set against a witty, red-mesh grid—a space station that NASA hasn’t imagined yet. Echo, one of her smaller pieces, is another peculiar mechanical hybrid. Here, the red grid dissolves, or rather is deconstructed, and then transforms into tendrils that attach themselves, pell-mell, to spherical shapes, punctuated by orange, twisted tangles.
Finally, one of my favorites, Agent One Small, is constructed of an amalgam of plastic materials that are hard to place, but that resemble pods, beehives, tubes, protruding cylinders and a blob that looks a dead-ringer for the large intestine. These hybrid accumulations, and magnified structural patterns, allude to molecular and mechanical systems. Zezmer’s work has a physicality, breadth and edge that make the heart sing. Rumor has it that she’s been bestowed an honorary membership by the Museum of Abstract Realism.
