Betsabeé Romero at the Neuberger museum
I want so much to post pictures of Ms. Romero’s’ sprawling show at the Neuberger this month. I was lucky enough to be one of the Art Handlers called in to put the show up as well as work with the curator. Picture a high ceilinged gallery filled with gorgeous wooden crates stamped with black symbols and stacked one on top of the other.
Then we opened them.
The first object of Romero’s I set my eyes on was a carved tire with gilded tread and I said to my partner “I love it, its gilded rubbish.”
The overarching theme of this exhibition strikes me as the reclamation of beauty from broken industrial objects; cars and all their parts mostly. You’ll be greeted by a dynamic use of found objects modified by this Mexican sculptor, from rear view mirrors laboriously decaled with stylized roses to complete cars encrusted with a mosaic blanket of broken glass, velvet and much more. Romero even recruited the visual arts student from next door to the museum to build an all new sculpture from a junked car, this one having an ocean theme.
The only drawback to this show is that there was so much we had to leave in the crates! Several giant photographs are still tucked away in their crates, longing for the loving attention of art enthusiasts. Trios of these 3’x7’ (approx.) photos are particularly interesting, showing a series of installations Romero did in Mexico City of taxi cab top embedded into the ground to reflect the original level the city once stood at. I also feel this series speaks to the migratory nature of the Mexican population, and how Mexico is very much a doorway between south/central America and the USA. This same theme of emigration is touched upon with a brick house constructed from bricks Romero had cast in distinctive molds she created.
Google her work, and you’ll know what I mean.
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