Hannah Levy: Bulge | Massimo de Carlo
Hannah Levy’s glass, steel and silicone sculptures seem like pretty much the most impractical things in the world. Eight, specially designed for the space, are on show at MASSIMODECARLO right now.
Levy calls them “strange, furniture-like creatures”. The orange and red glass and silicone are bulbously biomorphic, slightly constrained by the exoskeleton-like metal. And so, slight bulges appear. The sculptures are in the form of furniture: chairs and light fittings. Though in their spindly fragility they could hardly be less in line with the old modernist principle of form following function.
Levy added a carpet to the gallery’s floor, giving more of a plush atmosphere, but also allowing her to fix her impossibly wobbly forms to something, discreetly, so they don’t fall over. In each room, her lamp-like, wall-mounted glass works strain outwards, the bulbous heads encased in metal claws, trying to get a better look at us.
In a video accompanying the show, the artist adds that her inspirations ranged from Art Noveau to photos of insects (the chair legs, looked at again, are very bug-like). It’s an arresting collection, grabbing our attention as surely as steel grips glass.
Hannah Levy: Bulge is at Massimo de Carlo (London). 23 May - 22 June 2024