Tag: milky way

Diana Thater at David Zwirner Gallery

Inspired by James Turrell sculptures, in which the audience looks upward through a ceiling aperture to view the sky as art, LA artist Diana Thater devised this projection on the ceiling of David Zwirner Gallery as an homage to the dung beetle, a creature which looks to the stars to guide its ecologically critical activity. (In Chelsea through Feb 21st).

Diana Thater, Science, Fiction, installation for two video projectors, media player, and lights, overall dimensions vary with installation, 2014.

Kiki Smith in ‘It’s Always Summer on the Inside’ at Anton Kern Gallery

Kiki Smith, Milky Way, murrini with push pin, glass and plastic glitter, gold leaf and ink on Nepalese paper mounted on canvas, 2011.
Kiki Smith, Milky Way, murrini with push pin, glass and plastic glitter, gold leaf and ink on Nepalese paper mounted on canvas, 2011.

Kiki Smith’s ‘Milky Way’ brings to mind a more benevolent Edenic serpent hovering over a field of pointed breasts (a fertile Eve? multi-breasted Greek goddess Artemis?). Murrini glass, plastic glitter, and gold leaf amongst other materials create a dazzling backdrop and light up the snake from beneath.  The piece could read as an exhuberant celebration of fertility or its opposite, as sharp breasts threaten.  (In ‘It’s Always Summer on the Inside’ at Anton Kern Gallery, Chelsea, through August 24th).