Standing in front of a stark white wall with a single black line accompanied by the word "to" written in reverse, it is impossible not to get caught up in Peter Downsbrough's art, if only to try to figure it out.
The artist uses adhesive lettering, taped lines and black pipes to form stark and austere geometric shapes against bare white walls. Although highly minimalist, Downsbrough's art works across many different art forms, exploring line, space and language through a distilled, yet richly nuanced style.
Peter Downsbrough is an American-born artist based out of Brussels, Belgium. He created this installation specifically for the Barbara Krakow Gallery on Boston's Newbury Street, and it is his first solo exhibit in the United States since 2005.
Through his art, Downs-brough presents the viewer with a puzzle or suggests a different way of thinking about the structure and space around oneself. He cleverly incorporates existing elements of the gallery space into his work so that his art becomes a part of the room.
For example, Downsbrough integrates an existing support column into his exhibition by placing a black pipe vertically along side it. While the pipe looks as though it is attached at the base, it is actually hanging, and able to swing freely. Here, Downsbrough seems to undercut the fundamental purpose of the column as an architectural element and suggests its role as an aesthetic one instead.
In another piece, the artist uses the corner of a room to create the illusion of the wall folding into itself. He writes a word on one wall and then reflects it onto the adjacent wall, as though a piece of paper has been folded, with the ink transferred from the written word, which is now also shown in reverse, onto its other half. This gives the walls the moveable quality of the pages of a book, and by showing the word from the other side, Downsbrough encourages his viewer to think about it as something three dimensional, like an architectural structure.
Downsbrough raises similar questions in the meanings of the words he uses. In the piece entitled "HERE," two vertical black lines of different lengths sit at eye level on a blank white wall. Only when viewed from different angles is it evident that one of the lines is a three-dimensional pipe, while the other is a simple two-dimensional line. Downsbrough compels viewers to interact with the work by traveling through the space around it.
The obvious question posed by this piece is, "Where is 'here?'" Is this a flat or a three-dimensional line? Does it depend on where the viewer stands? Taken in the context of some of the artist's previous works, in which he incorporates maps, "HERE" could also be referring to the gallery's address on Newbury Street, the city of Boston or even the United States.
What makes Downsbrough's art so compelling are the endless possibilities it offers. By the time one interpretation seems like it might hold some weight, a handful of equally feasible ones come to mind.
For example, in the piece "SET/AS (reversed)," a grid-like vertical stack of blocks is painted on the wall. One has been displaced and sits next to the rest, leaving one space in the stack empty. The words "SET" and "SA" are also taped on the wall; the former accompanies the stack of blocks and the latter the displaced one.
The viewer naturally tries to make sense of the two words together, trying out different arrangements of the two. Most obviously, the single block has been "set" apart from the rest. But if one reverses "sa" back to "as," and combines it with "set," "asset" (some of which are troubled these days) could also be read. When considered this way, the glaringly empty gap in the grid of blocks suggests the concept of "debt," as though this block has been borrowed, but looks like it needs, at some point, to be replaced.
With a refined sense of humor, Downsbrough cleverly challenges his viewer in a way that is surprisingly complex, given the sparse nature of his art. The more one tries to make sense of his work the more slippery its meaning becomes. In his minimalism, Downsbrough leaves the viewer time and space to let thoughts wander free.
