At first glance, David Zwirner’s gallery – positioned right in the heart of Chelsea in West 19th St. – gave a perfect first impression of modern hospitality. Walking through two 20ft doors carved from wood, my eyes followed the concrete pathway into a room bigger than I had imagined. Walking in I thought, Four huge pillars in varying height and diameter, positioned in a square – groundbreaking. The only thing I felt was a sense of being small, but that was it. I remember looking around for an artist statement for over ten minutes – I never found one, and a part of me is happy that I didn’t. How is this art? Who would commission this? Maybe it’s my eye, but as a viewer, I expect to be blown away, taken back. Not bored. Maybe it was the setting of the objects themselves. They could have possibly had a greater impact if they had been set outside, in a setting where people would be engaged to see and look at them – questioning what they were to begin with… but it surly isn’t worth it; to walk all the way to Chelsea, into this huge empty gallery, to stand in the middle of four brown cylinders, just to feel small – and then question if that’s what Zwirner intended.
