David Altmejd’s The Flux And The Puddle (2014) recently shown at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris is a monumental work that infuses humor, political statements, art history and the metaphysical together in one massive room-encompassing installation. The comprehension of ecology is a theme you may think of when experiencing it.
It is basically a life-size box, or series of boxes, made of transparent plexiglass. This allows our impressions and wonderment to flow through it. We are meant to look inside through these panes and broken mirrors, but what are we looking at? Flourescent lights shimmer throughout the nooks and crannies as we investigate each coffer and treasure box. Fluids and solids that link the metaphysical to all living things are evident. The entire work is meant to be viewed as a whole but we can also see through it as if solid things have a translucency to them giving them a living and breathing quality.
There are layers of mirror-like grid sections allowing us to reflect and read into the laws of nature and man. Half-human and half-animal figures keep an eye out as we navigate around the room. Two seated charcoal-black figures mirror each other as a viscous mucus-like liquid flows below them. Is this the beginning of matter turning into humans? Succulent fruit (melons, grapes, coconuts) are floating throughout the work creating a link between plant and animal that emphasizes the metaphysical connection between both biological realms. The Flux and The Puddle challenges our linear approach to all things living and dead. The work challenges our understanding of the materiality and immateriality, transparency and opaqueness and the physical and natural worlds.
The Flux and The Puddle was shown in David Altmejd’s exhibition Flux from October 10 2014 – February 1 2015 at Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.
