The following is an article from Sculpture
Magazine, October 1996 p. 61
REVIEW: "John
Van Alstine: Vessels and Voyages"
at the DeCordova
Museum, Boston MA, June 1996 thru June 1997
Like many 20th-century sculptors, John Van Alstine is concerned
with achieving verticality, and with the leverage and flexion required
to get massive forms aloft. Standing upright is no longer
a given of sculpture but a strenuous and problematic undertaking. Van Alstine, follmving in the footsteps of Constantin Brancusi and
David Smith, has made the elevating function of the pedestal an
essential element of the sculpture itself, but he has also extended
the notion into the realm of metaphor. For Van Alstine, getting
off the ground is a perilous, unpredictable, and often humorous
journey into the unknown. In Charon's Steel Styx Passage (1996)
ascension is achieved by means of a diagonally thrusting pole balanced
on a large pneumatic ball or buoy. Perched precariously atop
this linear element, which slices into space with the confidence
of a jet fighter, is a rowboat stand-in for the mythical vessel
on which dead souls are ferried to the underworld. From this
vessel, with its teetering oar, projects an abstract linear element
that continues the diagonal thrust, although it does so somewhat
erratically, like a firework fizzling out. The unstable contraption
is anchored at the base by a massive iron cleat, used to tether
boats, and a block of granite. The erratic journey from massive
base to wispy curlicue takes on a picaresque narrative dimension,
like one of those 19th-century novels tracing a life full of misadventure. Van Alstine's life journeys-and this piece in particular, with its
overt literary references, must be read in this light-are never
without their difficulties; made up of bits and pieces, found objects,
and roughhewn natural elements, the narrative is full of false starts
and asides.
One of the pleasures of these sculptures is the way in which they
combine abstract and literal elements in ways that enrich the meanings
of both. Van Alstine is constantly punning in an almost Picasso-esque
manner, many parts doing double-duty: the metal cleat at the base
of Charon's Steel Styx Passage both anchors the work structurally
and the nautical reference broken propeller that agonal Tendencies
an organic rotundity that plays of the sharp diagonal tilt of the
granite block below, but it also gives a quixotic personality to
this massive form and its toohopeful pursuit of loft.
These works tend to be simultaneously playful and dangerous. In Tether (Boys Toys) (1 995) the pinnacle of the work is a missile-like
form that seems to be dragging its massive chain in an effort to
wreak random havoc. But the work is too good-natured, too
paradoxical, to threaten. The visual joke here is that while
the missile form appears to be tugging on the thick iron links,
it is actually propped up by them. The anchor at the base
further deflates the work's aggressive intentions through exaggerated
parody.
Van Alstine is interested in the erectile tissue of his pieces,
their phallic thrusting into ace, but also the imminence of deflation.
Like real men everywhere they aspire to conquer, but, in the event,
seem as likely to droop. For Van Alstine the process of getting
his sculptures up is a personal journey.
"John Van Alstine: Vessels and Voyages" is a fine inaugural
exhibition for the DeCordova Museum's new Sculpture Terrace. Dramatically set above a landscape of woods leading down to a lake,
the Sculpture Terrace is a wonderful addition to the DeCordova's
already fine outdoor sculpture park, affording visitors the opportunity
to view the work of a single artist in depth.
With their command of space and references to things aquatic,
Van Alstine's sculptures seem made for this dramatic natural setting.
--Miles Unger
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