Surveying the Moon

Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati is the current stop for the NY-based artist Tara Donovan's retrospective that got started at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. I had seen a couple of the installations shown in this exhibit back in 2007 at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London. Here are a few images from that show.



In this installation Donovan created a structure that resembled a moonscape. It looked like an outcropping of organic material that spread across the gallery floor. The material in reality was hardly organic. It was mylar.



Donovan frequently uses every day materials to create immersive environments that inspire awe in the viewer. We kept surveying these "structures" that glimmered with their reflective surfaces.

The second installation in this small exhibit was a wall-based sculpture that resembled a map.



Upon close view the materials revealed themselves as loops of metallic tape. It was unexpected to discover the material, since it defied the overall effect of the installation.