Just discovered Chicago artist Justin Cooper’s work [thanks bevel & boss]. Some of his sculptures are these fantastic lines that have a life of their own, which is all the more awesome because it’s obviously impossible. It’s like he drew them in space, out of banal minimalist materials. Fred Sandback meets Calder by way of Mark Handforth.
Above: Giant Leis, 2008, made out of plastic leis on steel armature. Below: Thread, a half mile of garden hose over steel, which was installed at 400 Gallery last April-May.
The drawing connection is slightly ironic, because the lines in Cooper’s equally interesting drawings turn out not to be lines at all. Upon close inspection, they disappear and dematerialize, like Lichtenstein’s Benday dots, or more like ur-Chinese ideographs or doodles, which teeter right on the edge of symbol and meaning, but which ultimately only function as part of the larger whole.
Justin Cooper’s site [nessiecoop.com]
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the making of, by greg allen