a. SQUIRE

“On the onomatopoeic formation of the word ‘mute,’ Anne Carson writes that this structure indicates ‘a certain fundamental opacity of human being,’ showing ‘the truth by allowing it to be seen hiding.’ To be seen hiding: How else to describe Bellucci’s tensed forms, ceaselessly incurving and contracting?...Peering, marveling, scrutinizing: Attention is gripped in a slow unfolding through which we lose ourselves, as Bellucci did, in an interlacement of form. That the integrity of these sundry items is retained throughout all this hyper-haptic sensualism is remarkable. Here is an art of exertive release that expands each material’s capacity precisely through involution. Allying disparate things with all their friction, his pressures appear less eruptive than responsive, less sudden than gradual, in their flexural care—depending on a hardcore involvement with unruly matter that allows relief.”

Alex Bennett reviews ‘Works (c. 2010–2018)’ for Artforum. Full text at the link in bio. Thank you @swoony_b @artforum!

Image: Franco Bellucci, Untitled, 2012. Various materials. 30 x 15 x 13.4 cm, 11 3/4 x 5 7/8 x 5 1/4 in.