Gravity is an unnamed but ever-present material in Alicja Kwade’s symbolically (and literally) weighty sculptures. On view in her current exhibition at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, a rocking chair cast in bronze is partially enveloped by stone and positioned in an enclosure made of glass bricks meant to represent the artist’s personal living space. Around the enclosure are mobiles titled ‘Heavy Skies’ that distribute the weight of various stones, a contrast to the lightness normally associated with such balanced arrangements. Precarity meets inertia in the contrast between fragile glass and heavy stone, creating a tension that comes from wondering what change is to come. (On view through Dec 17th).
