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Robert Orthal
seeing is believing
april 6 - 29, 2001
 opening reception fri april 6, 6:30-9:30 pm
Robert Ortbal's exhibition for p o n d, entitled Seeing is Believing, explores a territory of both real and imagined spaces that articulate psychological states of being. In several of the pieces, domestic and household items are embedded in wax, altering their recognizability as everyday objects. Made unfamiliar, the objects become mnemonic devices for intimate memories and associations.
"The process of building layer upon layer of wax, like making a candle, echoes that of an oyster as it protects itself from a grain of sand.
A strange beauty emerges within these excretions that protects and hides, revealing pain as the root cause and inspiration for this new growth."
In one of Ortbal's four pieces, over 100 pounds of grapes dipped in wax will be suspended from the ceiling and allowed to slowly ferment throughout the exhibition. Eventually, the expanding gases will cause the grapes to break their protective coating and drip into a pool of sticky, pungent liquid below, leaving the wax 'skin' attached to the vine. Discussing the regeneration of the grapes into wine within the wax, Ortbal writes, "I juxtapose these elements (grapes and wine) to evoke many associations and metaphors, the strongest of which may be the Eucharist and its power to transform life."
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