Projects 46: Karin Sander, MoMA, NY

28.04.1994 – 06.06.2018
Group Exhibition

The Museum of Modern Art, New York
USA

curated by Anne Umland

Like the notorious “Blob” of B-horror movie fame, Sander’s AstroTurf floorpiece spreads out over the Museum’s floor, spilling down the steps into the Sculpture Garden. Yet where the Blob, in ever-expanding fashion, consumed anything unfortunate enough to lie in its way, the outer contours of Sander’s sculpture are definitively circumscribed. Her work accommodates, rather than devours, the preexisting architectural and sculptural elements that fall within its bounds. Despite its grand scale (it measures almost 80 feet in length and 50 in width) and synthetic green color, this is a piece of carpet cut to fit all dimensions. Instead of an independent, detachable, autonomous object which displaces and takes up space, Sander’s sculpture clings to the surface (just as her Wallpieces, on view in the Projects gallery and elsewhere in the Museum, are embedded in the surface of walls) and is inseparable from the space in which it is displayed. It is not transportable, not repeatable, not for sale, and not permanent; it cannot exist anywhere else but here and only for a specified length of time (the duration of the exhibition).

Text: Anne Umland

Represented works

Astroturf Floor Piece