Amir Zaki.
Zellen, Jody
AMIR ZAKI
Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York NY October 19 * November 21,
2007
At first glance, Amir Zaki's new series of photographs and
sculptures, rather mysteriously titled "?*," concerns nothing
so much as bland mall architecture conjugated in the singular--isolated
gas stations, churches, taco stands, convenience stores. A keen
observer, Zaki photographs these architectural eyesores very precisely
against their immediate backgrounds, including palm trees, empty
streets, and mountains receding in the distance. What instantly strikes
the viewer, however, is that each building exhibits an enigmatic sign,
in the form of applied posters, metal hoardings, and flickering neon
lights. On the face of it these signs seem deliberate, being located
where commercial symbols normally go and having a similar eye-catching
effect. But it soon becomes evident that these signs are sheer poetic
license, added to the images after the fact.
Untitled_62-63 (all work 2007), for instance, is an abandoned gas
station seemingly in the middle of nowhere. An eclectic mix of
mock-stone pillars, diverse cladding, and a large, already crumbling
driveway overhang supported by two, impossibly thin columns, the
earth-toned construction is only identifiable by a single, relatively
inconspicuous piece of signage. Comprised of a red graphic circle with
three central dots and two intersecting diagonal double lines, the
symbol reads as a cross between a skull-and-crossbones and a Smiley
face. Elsewhere, Zaki places on the roof of an A-frame mall eatery an
electric sign in the shape of a large purple "L" with a circle
in each of its clock-like hands. Yet as the incongruous signage is
placed at the back of the building, out of sight of entering customers,
one wonders what purpose it might possibly serve. It even looks like a
religious symbol, with its glistening white Christmas lights. But as
it's not turned on, one would never know. What precisely sheds
light on this mysterious, faceless edifice is the nearby flash of a
McDonald's outlet, whose own unsigned proximity speaks volumes
about where we are and what we might expect to find.
A patent exercise in differential semiology and the absence of what
is usually thus affirmed, Zaki still allows his signs a certain
universal presence because of their continuing significance in absentia.
A good example of this presence-in-absence is the church-like building
in Untitled_127, with its sheer triangular roof and patterned facade of
circles and X's. Surrounding it are well-manicured lawns
tempestuously being watered by underground sprinklers. The
building's severely sloping sides expose bare low walls, to which
Zaki has added a duo of iconic intersecting lines in keeping with the
facade's game of religious Tic-Tac-Toe, stamping it as
authoritative yet profoundly empty. A patch of reflective water lying in
a gutter across the street says it all.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
What is truly baffling about Zaki's show is why he also
included his Symbol Combo series of laser-cut polyurethane sculptural
abstractions. Clearly related to the symbols insinuated into his
pictures, these enamel-colored additions seem heavy-handed and opaque by
comparison, otherwise jarring the subtle transitions between the
photographs. But perhaps this is the point. If Zaki is pointing out that
what signs assert is often an illusion, then it is just as certain that
art or architecture falls into the same category--the present sum of all
absences.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
