Lynda Benglis: Shape-Shifters

Lynda Benglis: Shape-Shifters, 2008
Text by Brenda Richardson
66 pages, Softcover
Published by Locks Art Publications
ISBN: 978-1-879173-52-1

This publication contains three series of works, each with three pieces. All of the works were made over the course of several months in 2007 at the Walla Walla Foundry, in Walla Walla, Washington. The King Pin series, cast in silver, and the Cloud Shadow series, cast in polyurethane were made from the same molds. The third series, Ghost Shadow, is made of rubberized foam and chicken wire. These works are inspired by natural occurrences, such as ever-changing cloud formations. Benglis's choice of dense, hard materials stand in direct contrast to the source of her inspiration. These new works, first exhibited at Locks Gallery, speak to a changing sky as much as it does the casting of metal - translucent vs. solid, soft vs. stiff. As Brenda Richardson states in her essay, "These are forms that shift and shimmer in light and space, very much like the ghosts, shadows, clouds, and other shape-shifters their titles evoke." Lynda Benglis has been creating challenging and influential work since the 1960s. As both a sculptor and performance artist, her constant experimentation with materials and processes has produced critically acclaimed and art historically significant contemporary art.