There is a gallery space at MASS MoCA that I always look forward to seeing. The space is so big I can’t help but think about how I would fill it. It always gets me thinking big.
Sometimes I feel like the art works perfectly in the space. Other times I feel like the artist is just trying to fill all that empty space.
Ledelle Moe’s exhibit “When” was made up of massive concrete figures. I didn’t read about the art, but I felt great empathy for these fallen giants. One looked to me like a giant Venus of Willendorf, knocked on her back, exposed and diminished.
The empathy I felt for the other figures came from their posture, positions and expressions on their faces. And the incongruity of how helpless they seemed compared to the power that is inherent in the steel and cement they are made along with their mass and size.
