February 14 – April 18, 1999
Originally from Canada, and currently residing in New York, Chris Hanson and Hendrika Sonnenberg have steadily produced art, but shown it only occasionally in group shows at galleries such as White Columns and Threadwaxing Space. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions was very pleased to present the first institutional, solo show of these long-time collaborators.
The show consisted of photographs and a single, large-scale sculpture constructed on site. The photographs, from a series called Fruit Bowls, document organic, pseudo-architectural structures — called “fruit bowls” by the artists — made of cardboard, tubes, and bits of plaster. Strategically and often precariously placed pieces of fruit (usually apples, oranges, melons, and lemons) sit around, on, and within the unwieldy structures, with themselves evoke the gloppy plaster constructions of Franz West. The fruit bowls themselves are destroyed once photographed. The images slyly reference several art historical precedents, including minimalism, nature morte, and Dutch still life painting.
In addition to the photographs, the artists filled the gallery with a large steel sculpture, constructed on site. Part jungle gym, part architecture, the gallery construction created a dynamic in which viewers are unwittingly poised and balanced like the pieces of fruit depicted in the photographs. When occupied by the object and by viewers, the gallery will function like a tableau vivant of the photographs.
