Geoffrey Hendricks at Pavel Zoubok

A sense of quiet awe at how quickly life passes lingered in Geoffrey Hendricks's deceptively simple show--expressed, for instance, in the evanescent clouds populating the watercolors of skies that appeared throughout. In Sky/Slate Wall #8/New York (2006), a wall was occupied floor-to-ceiling by a grid formation of Hendricks's signature skies, interspersed with weathered roof slates of the same size. The latter are from the Fluxus artist's 19th-century Greenwich Village building, the former painted at his Nova Scotia farm.

Hendricks has for some time also been engaged in musings about the moon in its phases. Caliper with New Moon/Full Moon (2005) has two small watercolor skies hanging from the hooked arms of a rusted caliper, a device used to measure diameter. Lunar cycles, of course, chart seasons, and Hendricks, in these and other pieces, seems to be reminding us of how we attempt to contain time by counting it. An antique Birdcage with Pulley (2005) was suspended from the ceiling, again with two sky views hanging from it. The checklist pointedly noted the cage contained "bundles of faggots," twigs wrapped with twine. This "cage aux folles" was one of several backhanded references to the gay identity Hendricks began embracing, often in performances, long before it was fashionable, and most recently in a 1995 Fluxus wedding/performance to partner Sur Rodney (Sur).

Hendricks has a quirky sense of humor and is a true iconoclast. Even his romanticism seems a kind of rebellion against art-world cynicism. Sky/Skull (2004), a weathered table supporting various objects, is in his lyric mode. Among the objects is a small, rough-hewn pine box stood vertically, its lid partially open to reveal an interior lined with an antique etching, which is a kind of pre-X-ray conception of a baby in a womb ready to burst forth; it seems a metaphor for the body on its life-journey. This box is connected via twine to the skull of a small animal, perhaps a little goat.

And the artist reached out in a quiet way to the viewer. A stool beneath the table seemed an invitation to sit and don the white gloves provided to handle the various objects, including a pile of moonlight-infused watercolors. Also there was a pair of small Tibetan brass cymbals, tempting the visitor to strike them together. If one did, one would hear a keen ringing, eventually dying, but not too quickly, vibrating with the same sweet pungency that marked this exhibition as a whole.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning