ARTFORUM
Michael Mahalchick
CANADA
55 Chrystie Street
October 20–December 04
Michael Mahalchick's compassion for destitute objects compels him to knot them into gentle, dirty bundles, bandage them one around the other, and tie them together so that they may never be lonely again. Taking as his working material the unlovely, soft refuse of urban existence—unwanted clothing, used bedsheets, matted stuffed animals—Mahalchick transfigures it through his particular form of assemblage magic: wrapping. Some sculptures disclose armatures of found chairs, picture frames, or carpet rolls, while others, like the disco-ball-esque Form.a, 2005, seem constructed, from core to surface, of layer upon layer of fabric, strung together to make a stable whole. The results range from the abstract to the nearly figurative, as in Sleeper, 2005, which evokes the bodily form of a multiple amputee, hooded in red sequins and resting on a fabric-covered cot. If this work almost too literally engenders pathos, others express a more subtle desire to rescue the rejected. Resurrection, 2005, may bear a weighty title, but it challenges one to recognize the life-giving quality of an artistic process that salvages cheap silk flowers, scrap wood, clashing fabrics, and mucky brown fake fur into a suspended sculpture worth looking at. And having really looked, one then exits the gallery to find that much more to look at on the street.