| Assuming the methodologies of construction workers, Alicia Frankovich cobbles together a critique of objects and familiar sites that refer to an architectural site of daily living. Her installations include shonky remakes of Gymnastic apparatus and examine spatial boundaries and the way in which we interact with designated spaces. Frankovich takes on diverse roles within the work, both as the creator and as its primary inhabitant. Frankovich’s practice is influenced by her experience as a gymnast through which she developed a specific psychology of space and spatial relationships. |  |
The Gymnastics of Space – Anna Jackson
Assuming the methodologies of construction workers, Alicia Frankovich cobbles together a critique of objects and familiar sites that refer to an architectural site of daily living. Her installations include shonky remakes of Gymnastic apparatus and examine spatial boundaries and the way in which we interact with designated spaces. Frankovich takes on diverse roles within the work, both as the creator and as its primary inhabitant.
Frankovich’s practice is influenced by her experience as a gymnast through which she developed a specific psychology of space and spatial relationships. The physical interaction between the gymnast and the apparatus is used to metaphorically suggest the way in which we relate to objects within the home and also within other everyday places. In a sense, the way that we sit at a computer is similar to the way in which a gymnast negotiates the beam or another structural boundary—both share moments of execution and release.
The scale of the work generally encapsulates the body and often materials hauled in from construction sites that block the body from the potential site, limiting personal interaction with a selected space. Frankovich uses her body as the measure with which she interacts with the space. “Falls from Handstand,” set in the boundaries formed by a wall and a wooden floor, documents the collapse of the artist as she dismounts from a series of handstands. Such action pieces represent an attempt to find release from an environment in which one is controlled passively.
As the subject of her large-scale banners, Frankovich collects names from Ikea catalogs and fuses them with the names of prominent gymnasts. She often uses the names of gymnasts from the former Eastern Block to imply a kind of social freedom experienced by women, through gymnastics, under a controlled political regime. Fonts and names employ their familiar furniture product personifications. OLYKMPJA (Olympia) borrows its name from a famous gymnast and refers to site at which the ancient Olympic games were held. The self-constructive and performative nature of Ikea furniture is toyed with—the tactile content and imagery becoming a play on the model of the consumer.
The banner works combine an urban construction critique with a compositional study of the Olympic Gymnast leotard. Blocks of color frequently refer to the formal Constructivist patterns that the gymnast wears as a logo on the chest and as an asymmetric pattern across the body. The uniformity of color suggests a bygone social construction or regime. Frequent references to the former Soviet Union; seen in the font, the Constructivist pattern and color, by extension, implies a release from social conformity and capitalism. In the banners, the gymnast is often depicted negotiating an urban scene and shown finding freedom through the execution of a “release move.” In OLYKMPJA (Olympia), two gymnasts are released from an urban site as they spring from their apparatus—only here the selection of apparatus is extended to include objects found outside of the gymnasium and is emblematic of everyday urban living.
Although they may appear haphazard, Frankovich’s works are succinct studies of the psychology of spatial relations with which we navigate our every day spaces.
