June 28, 2004
Christopher Knowles at Gavin Brown's Enterprise
While I was in Paris, Artforum posted my review of Christopher Knowles' exhibition at Gavin Brown's Enterprise. Here's the full text:
One gets the feeling that the doubling and repetition in this show—a not-quite-thorough but well-edited selection of works from the past twenty-five years by this longtime Robert Wilson collaborator—is less conceptual conceit than compulsive necessity. Five differently sized painted renditions of our rainbow-colored terror-alert system hang on one wall, matched in chromatic brilliance by geometric pieces of cut paper arranged on two pedestals on the other side of the room. Obsessively designed typewritten works—often featuring the letter C (as in Christopher) as a decorative element—are the centerpiece of the exhibition and merge perfectionism with the slightly absurd in a way that Carl Andre would admire. Multiple typewritten lists of pop and rock songs from various recent decades? Check. These works have an inner logic that may be hard to replicate but that makes intuitive sense, especially when taken as a whole.