Outer Limit
The eighth installment of the Opener series features seven large-scale works by Brooklyn- based artist Lee Boroson. Since 1995, Boroson has been known for his room-filling inflated sculptures. These colorful sewn-nylon enclosures find inspiration in many sources, from historic garden design to the architectural details of their sites. Integument, a buoyant piece installed in the Tang’s vestibule, compares an often-overlooked section of the building to a layer of skin. Pleasure Grounds, an inflated environment of lily pad-like forms, and Dewpoint, an accumulation of thousands of tiny glass spheres that form a hanging cloud, are amalgams of the manufactured and the magical. Other new works grow from the microscopic to the macrocosmic, such as a meticulously manipulated photograph that attempts to picture the visible night sky with all of its black space removed.
“Outer Limit”, 2005, dimensions variable, wood, paint, metal flake. Installed at Tang Museum. Based on architectural forms derived from similar representations in Hudson River School painting practice where looming architectural structures are presented as a sort of garden folly.
“Trim”, 2005, 45’x17’x3’, polyester fabric, embroidery. Installed at the Tang Museum.
“Lucky Storm”, 2004, Dimensions vary. Nylon, monofilament, stainless steel, hardware, blower. Seven “crepuscular rays” (an atmospheric optical phenomenon) appear out of an ominous “storm cloud”. This is one part of a three-part installation that alters the spaces of the gallery with elements derived from American romantic landscape painting, especially the pre-photographic interpretation of landscape found in Thomas Cole’s paintings and those of the Hudson River School painters. Nature is frequently presented as a fantastic amalgam of real detail and impossible phenomena, not observed but reinvented for the purpose of allegorical narrative.
The rays are in the shapes of lucky and superstitious charms laser cut out of stainless steel, then strung like a harp with fishing line. The cloud form is made of nylon fabric, supported pneumatically. The coloration is an effect caused by colored material sewed into the translucent fabric.
“CI: Star Swarm”, 2005, 12’ x 12’, digital c-print, mounted on aluminum under plexiglass
Alve Noe text from Outer Limit catalogue
Link to Tang archive pages