“Tearing paper makes it sculptural,” says Sasha Ascher, the
curator and one of two artists-in-residence at the Oak Street Gallery in
Greenpoint. This phenomenon, along with a formative perception of the edge between
tree and sky, informs the way Ascher eschews straight-bordered work in favor of
the irregularity of tears, and her interest in the excavation of self manifests
in a partially eviscerated notebook, its exposed pages painted light taupe,
light brown, and robin’s egg blue. In Oak Street’s first show, which opened
last Sunday as part of the Northside Art festival, Ascher is displaying an
unfurled scroll, darkened with charcoal, that resembles the body of a Chinese
dragon, and strips of paper that evoke vistas of a forest, an ocean, and a
lake. Another small piece depicts two vase-like shapes, perhaps wrapped in
shawls, with disembodied faces floating on top.
Ascher’s thin materials and jagged edges contrast with Oak
Street owner Stephen George Balamut’s three mostly smooth, abstract sculptures
of Italian marble, which both allude to and resist identification as fleshy,
human shapes. Balamut, who cites Constantin Brancusi as an influence and
sculpts without an object in mind, said the contrast in the artists’ media is
counterbalanced by their creation of three-dimensional forms. The rock and
paper “may have different personalities, but they look good together,” Balamut
said.
For the opening, Ascher also hung gorgeous strands of pearly
fabric, dyed two shades of indigo near the ends, from scaffolding that
surrounds a neighboring building; they swayed invitingly in the breeze. Oak
Street Gallery, at number 84 west of Franklin, is now open by appointment.
Email oakst.g@gmail.com to schedule a
visit.
