An Overfilled Guggenheim Retrospective Dulls Carol Bove's Brilliance

"It's wondrous that Bove has taken material used in the construction of buildings, firearms, and bridges and made it feel like a piece of fabric nonchalantly deposited and forgotten. I found myself walking for quite a while before I encountered such revelatory work again."

""Field Figures" (2008) is a combination of driftwood and steel, rising up tall from a flat steel base wherein the metal acts as struts holding up the weathered timber, as if it's a memorial that will be discovered after a worldwide ecological apocalypse. It is forlorn and sad in a way that reflects almost every shrine."

""Peel's foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep" (2013), which mixes brass and concrete, appeared at first to be a scale model for a brutalist building, with some decorative elements, when I approached it from one side. However, circling it, it transformed into a labyrinthine collection of open, uniform bunkers concealed inside a small city turned away from the sunlight."

Carol Bove's exhibition at the Guggenheim showcases her distinctive approach to sculpture, where industrial materials like steel and metal are manipulated to create unexpected visual and emotional effects. Works such as "10 Hours" demonstrate her ability to make rigid construction materials appear soft and fabric-like, challenging viewer expectations. "Field Figures" combines driftwood and steel to create a memorial-like structure suggesting ecological loss. "Peel's foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep" transforms from a brutalist architectural model into a labyrinthine collection of bunkers depending on viewing angle. Throughout the exhibition, Bove employs materials traditionally associated with buildings, firearms, and bridges, reimagining them as contemplative artistic objects that evoke emotional and philosophical responses.

Read at Hyperallergic