Atmosphere in White - Liverpool Biennial (installation view)

Atmosphere in White, 2014, Biennial of Liverpool. Photograph by Mark McNulty
 

Atmosphere in White

Nicola L.

February 13, 2015 – March 28, 2015. Performance: March 5, 7pm; RSVP required

View Atmosphere in White image gallery



Download Atmosphere in White book [pdf]

Chelsea, NYC: Elga Wimmer PCC, in association with curcioprojects, is pleased to present French-born and NYC-based, Nicola L.’s Atmosphere in White. Presented at last year’s Biennial of Liverpool, curated by Anthony Huberman, Atmosphere in White spans five decades of functional objects and furniture, and conceptual sculptures. Gary Indiana, critic and writer, observes that, “Nicola lives in a human universe, a world constructed by humans, and her work reclaims this humanity by reminding us at every point that our constructions emanate from within the envelope of flesh we inhabit.”

Fragments of the body: a foot, an eye, a head, and a torso are transformed into a sofa, standing lamp, bookcase, and ironing board. A large white vinyl Sofa Foot, 1968-2013, and a round plastic Eye Lamp, 1969-2013, evoking a planet, represent the Pop era in visual as well as material aspects. The Library Head, 1979-2012, is a bookcase in the shape of a large wooden head where new and old information moves in, around, out and back in, creating an exchange both private and public. With a wink to Duchamp’s "IL FAUT UTILISER LA JOCONDE COMME UNE PLANCHE A REPASSER" Nicola L.’s Woman Ironing Table, 2006, accentuates the duality of the sensual side of a woman with what is stereotyped as women’s work.

Nicola L.’s series of Penetrables are soft sculptures where the viewer’s body and the sculpture embody each other. Suspended from the ceiling, Atmosphere in White, 2005, the viewer “wears” it as a new layer of skin by entering your arms, legs, torso and head into the sculpture. Antartica, 2014, a white vinyl wall hanging with industrial looking gloves and a mask for the head which when worn references the frozen landscape. Pierre Restany, art critic and cultural philosopher, described the Penetrables as “the same skin for everybody.”

Penetrables performances, like White Cape on March 5, have been staged since the early 70’s on the streets of Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Barcelona and the Great Wall of China where many coats form one large coat simultaneously worn by performers. White Cape is a large white vinyl coat constructed of four coats, each of the four performers holds a mask with the name and photograph of one of the Beatles as they move through and out of the space to the song “Help!” A merger of contemporary thoughts on the body/skin with the sensibility of 60’s era POP free style.

Nicola L. will be participating in the Tate Modern’s upcoming The World Goes Pop, curated by Jessica Morgan presently director at DIA Foundation, NYC. Currently she is in the EXQUISITE CORPUS curated by Cora Fischer at SECCA, North Carolina. She was included in ARTEVIDA : politica / corpo, Museu de Arte Moderna and Casa Franca in Brazil. Nicola L. has widely exhibited, had film screenings and performed throughout Europe, Cuba and South America, and the US.

For further information contact: Elga Wimmer PCC: 212.206.0006 [email protected] / elgawimmer.com. Robert Curcio: 646.220.2557 [email protected] / curcioprojects.com.