Christine Corday: Relative Points

I N R E V I E W

CHRISTINE CORDAY:

RELATIVE POINTS

CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM ST. LOUIS

Greetings Earthlings and fine people of the Universe,

My name is Thomas Pfuhl and I recently took a trip to the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) for Christine Corday’s Relative Points. Upon walking into CAM and seeing massive iron curvilear figures arranged on the concrete floor, the first thought that popped into my head was, “how did they get here?”

CAM Executive Director Lisa Melandri gave me a full explanation of how the giant 10,000 pound iron cylinders ended up at CAM. They weren’t teleported, and there weren’t any aliens involved. I was told that the 12 tank-like cylinders were loaded onto semi-truck trailers from a foundry in Ohio in multiples of three, then loaded into CAM one by one via forklift. The dozen iron forms look industrial. Imagine 12 diesel oil tanks — the ones that were once used to heat homes — scattered all over a gymnasium, that was my first impression of Relative Points.

Corday was in her trademark blue coveralls when she gave St. Louis a first look into her tactile engagement with our galactic universe. That utilitarian outfit also hangs in the museum gift shop, (with a pricetag listing an astronomical number) as massive as her sculptures. Each slightly pointed cylinder is directed “meticulously” toward the center of the universe, explains Corday just before wryly mentioning that there is no center to the universe. She let us know that her material of choice for the metal van Gogh haystacks is iron and iron is star stuff. Quoting Carl Sagan, Corday reminds us that we are all star stuff.

Corday invites museum-goers to reach out and touch the rough metal forms dispersed across CAM’s main gallery space, dulling or perhaps shining the metal with their touch, forever changing the objects. Traditional “don’t touch the art” rules hold for what hangs on the walls: rectangular metal sheets painted with primer, a very basic material that also becomes ethereal through Corday’s interpretation.

Christine Corday, artist renderings of Relative Points, (images courtesy of Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis)

Corday’s “all the universe in an atom” conceit is playful and intellectually stimulating. Some of the heaviest-hitting art theory is folded into minimalist artworks and Corday’s practice is a prime example of this tradition. Minimalist design sets the landscape here in St. Louis, literally, all one has to do is look up and see the Arch. Relative Points definitely challenges us to see how minimalist artworks serve as thinking prompts. It’s a good fit for St. Louis.

-Thomas Pfuhl

www.camstl.org

ALLTHEARTSTL.COM SPRING 2019 IN REVIEW