LIZ-N-VAL: OF CABBAGES AND KINGS / September 7-October 7, 2007

 
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--of cabbages--and kings--and why the sea is boiling hot--and whether pigs have wings." (Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter, 1872)

Liz-N-Val, in this sparking show, sparkling because, among other things, it is reflective--touch on matters both sublime and ridiculous. The installation at REALFORM consists of three mirror panels painted black and a colorful, exuberant sculpture titled Eruption. The mirror pieces, “Cosmologies,” reflect and interact with Eruption, and of course with everything else. In the sculpture, colorful foam emerges from two wooden files. On one panel, little black figures are climbing a vast void of reflective nothing. In the second panel, black rays originate in an eyeball/sun and disappear--an exaggerated perspective into a celestial universe; in the third, black organic waves travel across the night sky, encountering geometric bodies and planetary shapes. A sense of personal wonder is countered by endless changes--earthly and cosmic reconfigurations.

The appeal of Liz-N-Val’s “Of Cabbages and Kings,” results from the decisive character of inspiration their work provides--as it is engaged equally by the fantastic and mundane. It tells us something that is both provocative and endearing, dealing in issues that address consciousness and existence yet in a manner which includes both humor and a hint of guile. This is where meaning creeps in. Starting with a children’s nursery rhyme, we confront the objects that comprise this installation in a quandary that involves our lost innocence and yet also taps into an epochal mentality, searching beyond and below the means of mere sensible attitudes toward the aesthetic experience. The elements that comprise “Of Cabbages and Kings” are, in both the poetical and the actual sense, effective and reflective. I hope you shall discover the same.