BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD - A SPACE BETWEEN ORDER AND HIERARCHY.
INFINATE FOLDS - Serpentine, LONDON. Photographed by Arnan Wang.
Confessions for Myself, 1972 - Black patina’d bronze and wool.
Malcolm X #20, 2017 - Polished bronze with black patina, wool, polished cotton and synthetic fibres and silk with steel support.
Braided organ pipes - re-tuned - to play an ancient future.
Ridged and runkeled metallic obsidian - raw prayers of ceremonial offerings
Synesthesia
The dignity of leaves - a ceremony to celebrate the forever fleeting - bronze bloomed with time.
Walking Angel, 1962 - Bronze.
Tender steps on delicate tread - patiently maternal -
Thorax perforated - winged lotus - a hand-cupped god of a dynasty long past.
Remembered in wet teal clumps of piled organs - heaped internal hot on the cold - an abandoned procedure - unfurling yet still beating - trapped between plates of rippled metal.
Bathers, 1967 - Aluminium and silk.
Time womb - aluminium silk - silk aluminium - a seat belt - cut - left to sway - pendulum and shadowing a trinity of stripe.
Giant knots - like hair - pulled back to prevent interruption.
A fountain of movement - mechanical and unrelenting -
A row of Gods - Luxor luxuriates - a drip of rust coral - the damn held for now -
Zanzibar, 1974-75 - Polished bronze with black patina, silk, wool and synthetic fibres with steel support.
Mouthwatering primal carnal - thickly Heavy Roman Catholic knots - tied - untied with exhausted abandon -
Uncontrollable red - gushing - with every heartbeat - behind a locked door.
Numero Rouge, 2021 - Bronze with red patina, silk, wool and synsthetic fibres with steel support.
The inner sanctum - hushed private - dignity dulled - in preparation for the next life.
The gold-rich and fervent - bodily mirrored ancient composure
Wood base - preserved
Brickwork rhythmic repetition in heavy metal - suffocates a tiny bed - for a bambino king.
Cleopatra’s Wedding Dress, 2003 - Multicoloured cast bronze plaques and silk on wood base.
Josephine - A generous grip of scarlet ropes - a mechanical arm outreached in a gesture of remembrance.
La Musica Josephine Red/Black, 2021 - Black patina bronze with red cord.
Barbara Chase-Ribound: Infinite Folds
Serpentine North Gallery - Until 10 April 2023.
Photographs: Arnan Wang