07 May 2018

Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling

Fabric Workshop and Museum

Reviewed by Jan Castro

The soft, curving sides of Ocean Voices, the tipsy, rippling Ocean Floor, and a few delicate silk and paper-pulp works express Ursula von Rydingsvard's gentler side, as her mega-ton cedar shapes fill three floors at The Fabric Workshop and Museum.

"The Contour of Feeling" invites viewers to take in Zakopane, a 138-inch high, wall-sized, roughly hewn symphony of cedar bins. Echo and Sunken Shadow, individualized male and female shovels over twelve feet high, could be side-by-side vertical coffin lids. The male has a larger frame and square shoulders in contrast to the female's slouch and footprints on its surface.

In PODERWAC (tearing apart), blue tape maps the body of a giant leather jacket, sewn from 150 vintage ones, as its armless sleeves trail on the ground. Cos and Krypta I, larger-than-human cedar sculptures with deep grooves and sharp ridges, express wounds, anger, and collective sorrow. This retrospective captures both protective spirits and phantoms of angst.