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The Washington Post
Thursday, May 21, 1998
By Ferdinand Protzman
"Bedspring Sculpture Creates Tension"
Maureen Jordan Tierney's constructions
using found objects seemed a bit whimsical two years ago, as
if she were giving the materials free rein, then hanging on for
a lively unfocused ride. In her latest work, she has taken bedsprings,
wire, fishing tackle, lace and other societal detritus firmly
in hand and turned them into coherent, enchanting art.
The exhibition titled "Shadow Maps- Constructions and Paintings"
at Touchstone Gallery effectively tracks the 34-year-old artist's
rapid and impressive development since she began concentrating
on making sculptural constructions that combine found objects
and painting. There is an intellectual rigor, sensual power and
emotional depth to the works on display that simply wasn't there
in her October 1996 show at Touchstone.
The cohesion manifests itself partly in her choice of materials.
Six of the works were made with bedsprings, which Tierney treats
as a mass-produced version of that staple of abstract art: the
grid.
She uses the bedsprings in a variety of ways; to support gauze,
cheesecloth or lace that she has impregnated with resin or plaster
and painted; shaped into a female figure; or used to form compartments
containing small paintings. The springs provide a visual and
structural logic, as well as a sense of internal tension, a feeling
of flexible, resilient strength.
"In my previous show, I felt more controlled by the found
objects," Tierney says, who works only with things she finds
on the street or in flea markets. "I was willing to go where
they took me. Now I feel like I know which objects are more a
part of my vocabulary and I work with them."
That pared-down vocabulary contributes significantly to the show's
thematic unity. Tierney's works explore several recurrent themes,
such as the interconnectedness of all things physical and spiritual,
the dichotomy between appearances and reality, and mankind's
obsession with measuring time and calculating its exact position
in a universe in constant flux.
While the found objects provide a visual framework for her explorations,
the emotional impact comes from the images she paints on the
objects. Before she began working with found objects several
years ago, Tierney was primarily a painter, and a very talented
one.
"Switch Track", a construction made earlier this year,
is a seamless example of the union of painting and sculpture.
Tierney takes the key cover from a piano and makes a rectangular
box with one side open to view. Painted on the back panel of
the box is a gently undulating landscape, which resembles a recumbent
female form. Against that landscape, she uses metal from the
piano mechanism to form rails that run through a switch from
an 027 gauge model railroad. The sidetrack runs into the top
of the key cover, emerging on the other side as the neck, peg
box and scroll of a cello.
Without the painting, the piece would be clever but cool. The
painted image makes it a sensuous meditation on choosing a direction
in life and the limits that we place upon ourselves.
But even the pieces in which there is little or no painting possess
considerable physical and psychological presence. In "Charmed
Carapace", another recent piece, Tierney has shaped a bedspring
into a female figure and given it a skin of white fiberglass
resin. The figure is hung from a brass scale she found at the
Georgetown flea market. The front of the figure is split open,
like a carcass in a slaughterhouse. The chest cavity is filled
with rabbit's foot key chains. Fishing weights attached by monofilament
line hang from the figure's back like a lead bridal train.
The brittle fiberglass skin and the rabbit's feet evoke fragility,
vulnerability and softness. But the bedsprings, in their deformed
but still vigorous grid, evoke a woman strong enough to carry
heavy emotional baggage. It is an accomplished piece by an artist
hitting her stride.
"Charmed
Carapace"
100 x 13 x 13"
bedspring, cheesecloth, resin, rabbit feet
lucky keychains, fishing weights, 1998
collection of Lorraine Adams