Arlene Shechet creates work that’s bound to transform

Whether you approach Eastern philosophies as religions, faiths, or educational systems, you will not be preoccupied with dogma or stifling artistic intention in Arlene Shechet’s exhibition at Galerie René Blouin. Shechet has created a body of work that utilizes iconographic symbols that occupy a quiet presence and serve as touchstones of tranqui

Naturally, it is difficult to describe the meditative qualities that the exhibit evokes without offering a disclaimer on interpretive subjective meaning, or at least foreshadowing a potentially subjective interpretation. Depending on your relationship to the content, this work can cloak, expose or mimic aspects of Eastern philosophy that creep up on you and seep into your subconscious with poetic intent.

Lumpy, nondescript statues sit on pedestals at the entry to the gallery, which seem strangely familiar. Peeled back from plate glass, dried layers of paint have been draped over statues of Buddha, Ganesha, Vishnu, and Siddhartha to form thick, textured surfaces that disguise their identities. The result is dogma bound by subtle restraint that entices the viewer to look closely, let go and meditate.

Maintaining their symbolic order, Shechet recontextualizes these objects by taking the edge off of their symbolic meaning through the layering of painterly surface. Cloaked in new coating, these loaded objects are reinvented versions of themselves. Like a magnet, they draw the viewer closer to gravitate to what’s beneath the surface. These mummified statues transform the gallery by shifting the viewers’ focus onto themselves as objects. Color denotes a distraction from meaning that is reinvested in the surface. These statues command attention quietly

The other piece is a group of oddly shaped vessels gathered in a large group on the floor, Knee-high and marked with blue ink, these white containers draw the viewer into to the installation on a formal level. Cast in handmade paper blueprints of Buddhist temples, the top half of these delicate objects are eggshell thin. They sit on top of inverted plaster replicas of themselves, which anchor the soul of the containers to the ground. The plaster bases are strong white shadows that support the delicate skins of the self. Each vessel is distinct, yet it mirrors another. The result is a collective of sanctity that seems both precious and hollow in it’s cloning. An invisible horizon line floats through the crowd and connects the objects in a web of community that does not exclude or alienate the viewer.

Shechet utilizes aspects of the multiple often employed in installations and sculpture that manipulates the calm of the temple by infusing the gallery with her own holy objects that are both steeped in meditation and the embodiment of an abstract sense of self.

The work is shrouded in Shechet’s transformative surfaces, allowing the viewer to pass freely among them without fear of rhetoric tainting the experience. There is no room for heavy dogma, only the potential for a shift in thought and a chance to meditate within a space usually reserved for other types of worship.