Canal/Varick
Part of Points & Lines
Tobias Putrih
Canal/Varick, 2009
Steel chain link fence
125’ x 77’ x 14’
Courtesy of the artist
…Acting as both a frame as well as a mirror, Tobias Putrih’s (b. 1972; lives and works in Cambridge, MA) Canal/Varick features seven-discontinuous chain-link fence sections that mimic the perimeter security fence that surrounds LentSpace. Although the work utilizes the same off-the-shelf industrial materials, any semblance to the actual function of the site’s security measures is displaced as large corridors through each section afford easy passage. As such, the structure becomes in effect a “fence,” which contains or impedes nothing. Instead the formal geometries of the work serve to accentuate several pathways across LentSpace so that lines of perspective slip in and out of place as one walks around’hinting to the overlaying of various orders without an apparent hierarchy. In addition to this substitution of purpose, from impediment to promenade, the highest section of fence intends to be used as a support structure for a projection screen during special events. This gift to other artists, which in effect, turns the artwork back into a piece of infrastructure, points to the work’s continued ambivalence toward either/or categories. In recognition of this, Canal/Varick will remain on site in perpetuity after the run of the Points & Lines exhibition…
