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'Theater of Disappearance' is a theater of dissolution and decay
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Listen
3:08
'Theater of Disappearance' is a theater of dissolution and decay
Adrián Villar Rojas makes massive, location-specific works. A life-sized dead whale statue dropped into a Patagonian forest. An elephant butting a wall in a downtown London Park. A mashup of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collections — on its roof. Now, he has created a spectral, mystery cave called "Theater of Disappearance" for the Geffen Contemporary.
Warning: Some of the images in this review may be disturbing.
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
The installation is dark. You are warned to let your eyes adjust to the gloom before proceeding. Staffers with flashlights point out the potential obstacles and the rest rooms. But they also help explain what’s on show, which includes laminated chimneys of rock and masonry that reminded me of Mexican Toltec pillars. Some loom two or three stories. Others are quite small. One is the size and shape of a sarcophagus. There are numerous boulders of eroded shape, most natural, some fabricated out of smaller rocks and clay.
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
All this monumentality seems intended to frame about a dozen illuminated, refrigerated display cases.
Displaying what? One holds a human skeleton. This ultimate mortality symbol is an element throughout the show. A nearby case contains a large bird’s nest surrounded by highly polished machinery fragments and tinder-dry underbrush, under which gropes a skeletal human hand.
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Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Another case holds an homage replica of Marcel Duchamp’s inverted bicycle wheel. But this wheel is encrusted with shells and sea wrack as if aged in a tropical lagoon. There is a dead fish and, at the bottom of things, a fried egg, sunny side up.
In several others, there are garish sneakers like those sold by Argentine vendors, vying with apples, sausages, intestinally tangled rubber hoses. One terrarium-like case is largely devoted to yams, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, suggesting the plenty beneath the soil.
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
Most intimidating are the cases of hacked carcasses of cattle and pigs. To an Argentine, these might suggest a festive parilla, or barbecue. To a museum goer, they present the implicit revulsion of eating meat.
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
But they also show the key dimension of Villar’s show: the 4th dimension. “Theater of Disappearance” is a theater of dissolution: gradual, refrigerated desiccation, decay—the leaves dry out, the sea-life colors fade, the flayed meat goes from red toward gray. If you think it is spooky now, come back in a month or two.
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"Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance" is at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018.
Adrián Villar Rojas: The Theater of Disappearance, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through May 13, 2018
(
John Rabe
)
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