Tanya Bonakdar

ERNESTO NETO
Slow iis goood
14 April - 25 May 2012

For his exhibition Slow iis goood, Ernesto Neto presents a series of vibrantly colored installations

of crocheted polypropylene and polyester cord that hang from the ceiling, hovering several feet

above the ground. These new works continue Neto’s practice of using gravity, weight, and

tension to dictate form as plastic balls in different shades provide a counterweight for the

crocheted sheets. Stretching the crocheted membranes taught, the balls form a floor for the

labyrinthine, tunnel-like structures of alluring color and inviting texture that the gallery visitor is

meant to enter and explore.

Crochet has become an important part of Neto’s formal vocabulary over the last two years, and

the artist has translated this craft traditionally done by women on a small, delicate scale to

structures of massive proportions. The basic units of crochet, string and knots, serve as Neto’s

paint and his paintbrush, with the gallery as his canvas. Like giant paintings that the visitor is

invited to climb into and move through, the installations provide an opportunity to experience the

gallery space from the inside of the artwork itself. Looking out through a screen of colors—

oranges and grays, greens and purples, blues and yellows—the viewer’s perspective is

reoriented, as the boundary between artwork and visitor is blurred. While breaking down the

barriers between installation and viewer, these new works simultaneously propose a change in

our relationship to time. By lifting us off the ground, to float between the floor and the ceiling,

Neto offers us a space in which we can slow down, breathe, and rest.

Although these are spaces meant for relaxation, they are created through a meticulous, laborintensive

process. Each element is hand crocheted from multicolored strings that the artist

combines from a wide-ranging spectrum of threads. The intense, subtle, and sophisticated

juxtapositions of color that Neto chooses are then woven together into a single strand, and

knotted into circular units that combine to become the walls of the sculptures. The irregular

circles of crochet that compose the nets simultaneously resemble cells seen through a

microscope, and a network of constellations unfurled across the sky. Here, the inside and the

outside universe are represented in the same form, demonstrating the interconnectivity of life.

Not only do the works resemble and reference natural, organic matter, they also incorporate it:

the installation in the main space upstairs includes, stones, plants, and spices. These natural

materials serve as a kind of landscape for the main structure of the installation, which itself

resembles an amoeba-like animal floating in space. The fusion of figure and ground, or animal

and landscape, is a central part of Neto’s practice. Just as his work blurs the boundary between

artwork and viewer, inviting the visitor to inhabit and experience it on a visceral, primal level, it

also draws no distinction between types of life—we are all a part of the natural world.

Neto’s opening at the gallery will be followed by a solo presentation at the Nasher Scultpure

Center in Dallas, opening May 11 and on view through September 9. Recent major exhibitions

for the artist include La lengua de Ernesto: retrospectiva 1987-2011, at the Museo de Arte

Contemporáneo de Monterrey, MARCO, Mexico, traveling to Antiguo Colegio de San Idelfonso,

Mexico City, Mexico, 2011-2012 (solo); Ernesto Neto: O Bicho SusPensa na PaisaGen, Los

Molinos Exhibition Hall, Faena Art District, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2011 (solo); Ernesto Neto:

The Edges of the World, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, UK, 2010 (solo); Ernesto

Neto: Intimacy, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway, 2010 (solo); Dengo,

Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil, 2010 (solo); and anthropodino, Park Avenue

Armory, New York, NY, 2009 (solo) among others.