Ambiguous Fruits of Nature |
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From the New York Times
Sunday, July 30, 1989
by William Zimmer
in Lawrenceville
THE headquarters of the Squibb Corporation might resemble a well-manicured game preserve. Because these is such a building boom occuring Princeton the game would welcome such a habitat. But what we have mainly is a species of art preserve. Any art exhibited at the Squibb Gallery is seen against vast, bucolic nature -- trees, ponds, lawn and sky -- through large windows.
The above holds true for any exhibition, but one feels it more intensely with the current show, "Journey Into Nature: Selected Works by Ming Fay 1979-1989." Mr. Fay is a sculptor who fashions the fruits of nature larger than life.
There are 22 separate works in the exhibition, but ail of them might be considered together as a kind of meditation on different aspects of nature. For starters, Mr. Fay is deft at juxtaposing familiar objects, like a large orange or a couple of pears that have a Pop Art quality to them, with other embodiments that are strange and exoticas- well as physically rough.
When we enter the gallery, we rub against the reassuringly familiar in the form of a red plum, a black plum, a Bosc and a Williams pear, among other things. We are aware that Mr. Fay is a naturalized American who was born in Shanghai in 1943, is something of a connoisseur for being so interested in different species of the same family. One is somehow reminded of Platonic philosophy at its most elementary level. Every particular table is a manifestion of an ideal table and we think of an ideal pear or plum at the root of these rare partlcuiars.
We cannot confidently, without having recourse to the brochure that lists all the titles, identify a certain green-red volumetric object as a bell pepper; we are used to seeing peppers that are an uncompromising dark green (or red). Nevertheless, it is the initial departure from the familiar fruits.
The bell pepper gains its power not through this single manifestation on the verge of ripeness but from the presence of a nearby companion piece, the bell pod. This object is craggy, but its almost perfect bell shape is a foil to its rugged terrain. To go by its fresh green color this might be one of the Himalayas in Springtime
It is ambiguous readings that make the exhibition begin to crackle. A winged shape is identified as a maple, but one might initially take it for a kind of dragonfly. which is quite another thing.
On a wall by itself is "Linjao." a form that seems to have stubby wings. But this is a lily pod. Mr. Fay has graced the brochure with line drawings, and the lily pod as a drawing seems batlike.
In the great tradition of the Chinese attitude toward nature, this is largely tranquil ahow, so one cannnt help be amused at the buzz that seems to emanate from "Wishbone Pair." Two wishbones, looking very anthromorphic, seem to be engaged in face-to-face conversation, and this is an indication of the artist's range. He can break away from a seeming dedication to verisimilitude and shift the focus to humor.
At this point, it must be said that these works, though extremely competent - they would not work at all otherwise - do not arouse the least bit of curiosity about how they are made. One does not know if the understructure is wood, metal or some synthetic. The pieces simply are, and to worry about how they got to be would detract from the marvel.
Yet at the same time, we do not mind knowing in the end that what we have are compounds of wire, gauze, plaster, paper pulp, polymer and pigment.
The conversation between the wishbunes is matched by "Conversa- tion of the Spiral" A tightiy coiled ram's horn faces the shallow bowl of a clam shell, which also reads as an ear, open and attentive. This side of the gallery gives one much to talk about Passion sounds with the two ginseng roots dubibef "Elixil" These works, of course, conjure up amorousness, but it is a hard-won sensation because these objects are ungainly, albeit fetchingly so.
It is difficult to speak of development in Mr. Fay's work across this 10-year span. Rather, one thinks of his being anracted to increasingly richer subjects, richer meaning more complex and obscure But a couple of works from the last two years relate not simply to the natural world but to the history of art.
Some "Long, Long Beans" are just that, 115 inches long. They are composed of encased legumelike modules, and with these bulges one thinks of the potentially perpertual scheme of Brancusi's "Endless Column," one of the most seminal sculptures from the early years century. Also columnilke but tapering is the 93-inch long "Stinger".
Next to the Squibb Gallery is the museum, where display cases feature objects and pnoducts that trace the history of the corporation. That the founder, Dr. Edward Robinson Squibb, preserved plants in his notebooks resonates with Mr. Fay's artistic enterprise. It, too, seems a tonic, something "to your health."
The show runs through Aug. 27. The Squibb Gallery is on Route 206 and Province Line Road, three miles south of Princeton. It is open from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Monday through Friday (with hours extended to 9 P.M. Thursday) and from 1 to 5 P.M. on Saturday and Sunday.