Sarah Sze's Athens Exhibition Explores Perception Through Sculpture and Poetry

At Gagosian Athens, Sarah Sze presents an exhibition featuring three clay sculptures named Proportioned to the Groove (2019), each showcasing a fractured silver-coated brick set on a wooden base, with a photograph of the night sky underneath. The display also includes Wider than the Sky (2021), a polished steel floor sculpture that is a smaller iteration of her major piece at Storm King Art Center in New York State. A large installation titled Travelers by Streams and Mountains (2021) integrates video projections, torn paper, a pendulum, and various objects to create a sensory overload. Across two gallery levels, ten paintings combine digital prints, paint, and torn images on wooden boards, with horizon lines hinting at landscapes and central motifs of fire or water forming spiral patterns. The exhibition, which runs until 20 October, is inspired by Emily Dickinson's poetry, addressing the contrasts between infinite time and space and human perception. Additionally, references to Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory (1951) and poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge deepen her exploration of material organization and cosmic themes. Sze's use of everyday materials like clay, paper, and tinfoil invites viewers to consider how these objects can reflect the peculiarities of existence through innovative arrangements.