Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Continues through March 22, 2025
February 8, 2025
Visiting Jeanne Silverthorne's exhibition “They Will Be Like Shadows” as the recent Los Angeles wildfires burned influenced my response to and interpretation of the works. Silverthorne’s platinum silicone rubber and mixed media sculptures — some figurative, others referencing the body — alluded to the death and destruction of real time events. Seeing “Banshee (Self-Portrait at 73)” (2023), a life-like, off white sculpture of a woman (the artist) stretched out on the gallery floor sent shivers down my spine. Silverthorne recreates her aging body, devoid of color but full of detail: untied sneakers on crossed feet, gray synthetic hair and black rimmed glasses flanking her complacent face.
In “Too Dumbly in My Being Pent” (2023) she presents the same figure, now in fragments and stuffed into a cardboard box lined with bubble wrap, suggesting the sculpture will be shipped and/or stored somewhere hidden from sight. In keeping with Silverthorne's practice, the figure as well as the box and wrappings are all intricately fabricated casts. Silverthorne is a master of her chosen material (platinum silicone rubber) and can fabricate and transform just about anything of any size with acute veracity.
The exhibition unfolds as a narrative on life and loss, as well as on an artist's practice as it relates to the rest of the world. The pieces simultaneously feel fragile and sturdy. Because Silverthorne has such a command of her materials, the works are also minimal and maximal: they feel alive though they are fabricated. In the disconcerting “And the Unfathomable Night of Dreams Began” (2022), a tiny, sleeping baby wearing a knitted cap rests on a billowing white cloud that also resembles an enlarged wad of chewing gum or cake frosting.
Silverthorne describes a trajectory of maturation as the infant grows and becomes a child. Children's sneakers appear in “Crate with Sneaker,” “In My Mother's House,” and “Double Sneakers ('The Three Sillies’)” (all 2023). In “Crate with Sneaker” Silverthorne fashions, completely from rubber, a four-foot-high wooden crate. The otherwise empty container holds one small black sneaker at its base. As the footwear is its only contents, the piece suggests the unsettling idea that there could be a disembodied foot inside. The narrative progresses: the child becomes an adult. Silverthorne depicts not only herself in the aforementioned “Banshee (Self-Portrait at 73),” but also her mother in two other richly impactful works, the evocative small-scale table top sculptures “Mom Under a Cloud II” (2024) and “Mom on Book” (2023). In “Mom Under a Cloud II,” Silverthorne's mother is seated on top of a pile of crates that are suggestive of coffins. This exacting figure leans forward, one arm across her lap, the other below her chin as if lost in thought. A floating cloud magically hovers above her head.
For “Mom on Book” Silverthorne's mother stands on a hardcover volume of a book of fairy tales. The closed book sits on a pedestal. It has white pages and a black cover. Its title (“365 Fairy Tales”) appears as raised letters on the book’s spine. The implication in this quasi-narrative could be a mother reading from the book to her growing child before the mother is consumed by the clouds (referencing “Mom Under a Cloud II”).
“Hanging Question Mark” (2020) in many ways sums up the overall experience of the exhibition. Here, Silverthorne suspends a large, black, three-dimensional rubber question mark from the ceiling so that the circular punctuation point sits on top of a tall rubber crate. The excess rubber rope loops over pipes in the ceiling and rests on the floor behind the crate. As we try to decipher the various elements, the work appears ambiguous and absurd. When seen in relation to the empty quotation marks of “Quotes” (2021), which bracket empty space on the wall, it becomes evident that Silverthorne is playing with language, enticing us to think metaphorically as we weave our way through the various elements of the installation.
Jody Zellen is a LA based writer and artist who creates interactive installations, mobile apps, net art, animations, drawings, paintings, photographs, public art, and artist’s books. Zellen received a BA from Wesleyan University (1983), a MFA from CalArts (1989) and a MPS from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (2009). She has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1989. For more information please visit www.jodyzellen.com.
Comentarios