S t u d i o F i v e B e e k m a n

sound and intermedia gallery

Martin Walch

Mandala

a multi-media installation, with text by Miriam Rodriguez and sound by Michael J. Schumacher

Fridays & Saturdays

3 - 9 PM

Setember 5 - 27, 1997

photographs by Barbara Geyer

"Mandala" is a cubiform composite of cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other, with a continuous, interlacing ornament cut into the sides.

The boxes, in retaining the form and function of plain packing material, communicate immediately a sense of impermanence and ease of disposal. A portable sculpture, which, when set up, commandeers large areas (in spite of being structurally at rest), it loses almost all of its presence when the boxes are folded up, evacuating its space in favor of a "something new" - proposing in a wider sense the theme of traveling, with all its specific demands and consequences - and ultimately promising nothing more than a protective space for "vulnerable goods".

Like the barred fences around playgrounds and parks or in front of windows and building entrances, the boxes' cut-out pattern offers a jigsaw-puzzle-like glimpse into what lies beyond - the glimpse we indulge in daily, only most often on a more unconscious level. Here it is a glimpse into the "inner life" of shipped goods. The surreptitious play of being lured in and being kept out - a kind of surface voyeurism - stands in contrast to the meditative, mandala-like character of the repeating ornament.

"Mandala" by Martin Walch will be the main feature of a multi-media installation with texts and music by poet Miriam Rodriguez and composer Michael J. Schumacher. In this setting, the sculpture will dominate the gallery space, occupying 80% of the room. Rodriguez's text and Schumacher's music will emanate from 14 speakers placed around the room, the encompassing sound a counterpart to the sculptureÕs bigness.

"Walch's works strongly inspire one - to trains of thought full of youthful energy, long series of mental leaps, droll fantasies." from a review in ARTIS - Zeitschrift f. neue Kunst, June 1993

For more information:

e-mail: geyer_walch@hotmail.com