where is the power
Forth Worth Contemporary Arts
August 25 - October 27, 2012

Curated by artist and Curator of Education at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Terri Thornton, where is the power, is the bright spot in Fort Worth’s current exhibition offerings. Works by Liam Gillick, Mona Hatoum, Glenn Ligon and Cornelia Parker are just a few of the offerings Thornton has skillfully grouped together under the auspices of thinking about the notion of ‘power.’ Beautifully nuanced and complex, the works in the exhibition diverge and rub up against our typical definitions for the word. Power is located in place, love, politics and abstraction to name only a few of the many examples. Gillick’s text, taken from Lewis Carroll’s Alice: Through The Looking Glass, is both the jumping off point for the exhibition and the piece that greeted me upon entering the space. ‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only runs backwards’ read the small vinyl letters, first in English and mirrored in Spanish directly below. Centrally located and floating on a large white wall the phrase echoes throughout the show, occupying the largest amount of ‘space’ with the smallest of gestures. Provocative and evasive, qualities familiar to those fans of Gillick’s work, the piece dovetails nicely with Alejandro Cesarco’s film Zeide Issac and Josiah McElheny’s Three Historical Mirrors, to name a few. There’s the hook. Power comes in and out of focus as you move through each work, recalling a previous piece or catching a glimpse of one not yet seen. The permutations become increasingly expansive making a visit, or two, most assuredly worth your time.

Eric Zimmerman is an artist and Editor of ...might be good.