Huma Bhabha at Salon 94 downtown and uptown, NYC

The Philosophy of listening.
Silence has sound and a texture. Stillness leaves it’s traces, you carry them with you evermore… Huma Bhabha’s work uses a formal language to convey these thoughts.
Salon 94 presented her work at both the opening of their new location at 1 Freeman Alley on September 12 and their original location on 94th street. NYC on September 13th.

The new location is a bit off the beaten track, tucked away from normal view. You make a quick right, down the narrow, old, New York street. A quick glance to your left and there before you gleam the new contemporary glass doors. Working with the original structure of the building, it is an open space with fresh white gallery walls, which allow the original brick to peek from behind. Overhead loom huge wood beams now white washed and wonderfully incorporated into the new design.

Bhabha’s sculptures constructed from wire, clay, styrofoam, petals, ashes, acrylic paint, rust and a myriad of other materials reflect a marking of time through the process of decay, scratches, burns and layers of paint and materials. The figure is entombed in the layers and remnants. Body fragments such as large feet or the half man, half god-like Vishnu figure created from the urban materials are remains from an ancient time yet absolutely contemporary. As you slowly move around the works you begin to hear the subtle conversation between the work and the space.

On view at the 94th Street gallery, her large-scale installation piece sat on a wood plank platform in the middle of the large room roughly 10” off the ground. Two figures stand at opposite ends of the piece with their backs to each other facing outwards towards the viewer. On the left side a figure with Cubist-like features. Clay, wood, Styrofoam, wire chicken wire form the body, electrical metal tubing runs down it’s back exposed at varying points reminiscent of umbilical or spinal cords into the work. A thin wire appears as you begin to survey the intricacies of the piece. The artist burns, gauges, draws and paints symbols, wounds, marks, or a handprint on the pieces of styrfoam. The Vishnu like god figure is seated as if on a thrown on the right side giving the appearance of a regal relic in a museum. Layers of paint, glue, string, wire, dust like plaster, a sprinkler part and other materials lay on the floor of the piece bring to mind fallen leaves allowed to collect and build. Using wood she creates the feeling of a floor plan from a gutted or abandoned building. Vertical paned windows across from the piece brought the outside environment in for a chat. The lines and materials of and in the work began to converse with the architecture of the buildings, garden, and construction going on just outside in a formal language. Huma is clearly at home in the space. As I continued to walk around the work, I became completely immersed and fascinated by her work. Sinking into it, quietly listening, the world slipped away. …and I have become the remains of the day.