October 10, 2008
Sharon Mizota
New ways to see, as with 'Galileo'
In her exhibition at Bank, "Foreign Exchanges: Galileo," Dorit Cypis calls for a more nuanced understanding of history. Spread across two walls, a constellation of variously sized discs bears photographic images, from green leaves and clumps of hair to crowd scenes and partial views of the faces of Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein and other famous figures. Interspersed among these images are several concave mirrors that create upside-down reflections of the viewer and the room. The result is a lovely metaphor for a more flexible structuring of history: a loose string of pearls that catches the light differently depending on your point of view.
Clearly a reference to the show's namesake -- the Renaissance scientist who upheld the dogma-shattering theory that the Earth revolves around the sun -- the arrangement appears to emanate from a clump of mirrored discs, each etched with a word in dainty script. It's a dazzling object (a sun, perhaps?), providing something like a fly's-eye view of, again, one's upside-down reflection.
By disorienting the viewer, Cypis attempts to subvert a straightforward reading of the words "memory," "myth," "history," "fantasy," "dream," "family" and "desire." Unfortunately, it's not enough. Although the mirrors work well amid the photos, their combination with such loaded words lacks the same subtlety.
Other inversions are more successful. "Tree Tree" is a diptych photographed from both outside and inside low-hanging branches, which form a kind of tent. This visual flipping makes plain the ability to see two sides of any given situation and how views of the same thing can be radically different.
Although her delivery may be a little heavy-handed, Cypis' message is clear. In a political climate that is perhaps more balkanized than ever, it behooves us to try to see things from our opponents' point of view.