Art review: Kris Martin at Marc Foxx Gallery
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Belgian Conceptual artist Kris Martin typically uses ready-made objects or common situations to make slight gestures that might destabilize assumptions. (At a crowded event, he once had a loudspeaker announce a moment of silence -- for no discernible purpose except to see what it would be like.) For his current show at Marc Foxx Gallery, it means stuffing a full-scale hot-air balloon inside the main room.
At the entry, the balloon’s wicker basket lies tipped on its side. The word ‘avian’ and the black silhouette of a bird are painted on the bottom, perhaps suggesting what’s to follow: This eagle has landed.
A pair of large standing fans blows a big, steady volume of air into the room, apparently pressing the red-, white- and blue-striped balloon against the contours of the gallery’s floor, walls and sky-lighted curved ceiling. Step through the ropes and you enter a decidedly strange space. This is the place where a balloon gains the capacity to carry one away. Since the colored cloth lines a gallery, it’s also the place where art, aesthetically speaking, is expected to do the same. A bit of a one-liner -- and beware jokes about hot-air in an art gallery -- the installation nonetheless conveys a poignant sense of imaginative liberation imaginatively grounded.
Marc Foxx Gallery, 6150 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 857-5571, through May 21. Closed Sun. and Mon. www.marcfoxx.com
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-- Christopher Knight
