DEWITT GODFREY: PICKER SCULPTURE

PRESS RELEASE / FALL 2004

DeWitt Godfrey's second exhibition at Black & White marked the first time that a project was conceived specifically for both the gallery's indoor and outdoor spaces. Building on the responsive structures of his first installation, but introducing a vertical scale that was new for the artist, the interior component of Picker Sculpture consisted of a series of variably sized cylinders made from thin strips of pliable cor- ten steel. Stacked on top of one another and compressed into the space between the gallery walls, they bisected the space with a wall of oval-shaped cells. Climbing through the structure, the viewer emerged in the outdoor space, where an even larger version of the construction was squeezed in between the walls of the courtyard. "I wanted to break up the space even more with the second installation and create a series of both physical and visual experiences," said Godfrey. Standing at the entrance to the gallery, the indoor component framed and was echoed by its larger outdoor counterpart, both of which resembled biological structures, but the scale of the outdoor piece only became apparent when the viewer physically passed through the first sculpture. "The cylinders are like a crude form of life that doesn't have a structure until it's in a relationship with something else," said Godfrey. "I wanted to draw attention to their dependence on engaging with a physical space— any physical space—with the two different scales." The work is now permanently installed at The Fields Sculpture Park in Ghent, New York. Bounded by trees, rather than gallery walls, it has a radically different form.