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17/10/2002

Ecstasy Falls

Jeff Gleich, Paris

Ecstasy Falls

Brian Storts
Nate Lowman
Katherine Bernhardt
Marcy Freedman
Sanford Biggers
Erik Bakke

Ecstasy Falls is an exhibition of contemporary American art works that explores the pitfalls and pleasures inherent in the pursuit of ecstasy.

An active interest in ecstasy can be considered a particularly energetic aspect of many individuals' strong belief in the "unalienable Right (to the) pursuit of Happiness." The emphasis on ecstasy over happiness here is to consider the desire to attain "a state of being beyond reason and self-control."

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa (1645-52) serves as an example of the attempt to depict the ecstatic in art. With this sensuous sculpture of a pious subject, Bernini depicts both spiritual and corporeal ecstasy. The distance that a viewer, from any period of time, might feel from St. Teresa's rapture points to a conundrum for the pilgrim seeking ecstasy through art; neither viewing depictions of the ecstatic nor the creation of such images is likely to duplicate an ecstatic experience itself. On the other hand, extraordinary art like Bernini's can help make sense of the desire for ecstasy - of the desire to take leave of one's senses for an experience that is hard to obtain, impossible to sustain and which, in the end, can even be dangerous.

Today, as perhaps has always been the case, the pursuit of ecstasy is largely a quotidian activity. Spiritual transcendence is not a consideration when states of abandonment themselves are the focus. Individuals worldwide look to lose themselves in, for example, sex, drugs, and music or - less commonly - through means such as secular meditation or the contemplation of fine art.

Through the works of Brian Storts (a multi-media installation of objects, drawings and lights creating a wonderland in the lower level of g-module); Marcy Freedman (a site specific installation hanging from the g-module ceiling bringing to mind both canny craft and the natural process of the stalactite); Nate Lowman (paintings of John Philip Walker Lindh, the youthful suburbanite who became the "American Taliban"); Sanford Biggers (a mandala installed on the floor and a video showing a break dance competition on a similar mandala); Katherine Bernhardt (glam/pop paintings of the McDonald's logo); Erik Bakke (an installation centered around a honeymoon suite bed), the exhibition Ecstasy Falls offers viewers an opportunity to reevaluate the relationships between art and ecstasy and themselves. Ecstasy Falls has been organized by Erik Bakke.

Image: Brian Storts
The Green Giant, 2002
mediums mixtes in situ
dimensions variables

Jeff Gleich
15, rue Debelleyme 75003 Paris
t. 01 42 71 14 75
f. 01 42 71 14 67
Metro: Filles-du-Calvaire, St. Sébastien Froissart.

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