“Multitalented and eccentric.” ― The Boston Globe
SCULPTURES
Cynthia von Buhler is internationally represented for painting and sculpture by Stefania Carrozzini.
Von Buhler’s canvasses are three-dimensional collages enhanced with objects, live animals, and electronics, such that in addition to being paintings, they are also often large and elaborate mixed-media installations. For example, Miss Ann Thrope is a life-sized painting of a woman with two doves perched inside. When the birds move in the piece, they change its equilibrium and alter its intended meaning. In Sir Repetitious, an egotistical man’s transparent insides reveal two voracious rats, hungry for the food and attention of onlookers – feed the rodents with the supplied seed, and you are satisfying Sir on physical and metaphorical levels. A velvet-curtained puppet theater sets the stage for Show and Tell, a multimedia painting that explores the use of word versus action with hidden visual and auditory messages. The aptly-named Please Don’t Look Up My Skirt is a commentary on date-rape in which a Botticelli-esque beauty without arms or legs tries modestly to cover herself, imploring the viewer not to violate her; those who disregard the plea see what they have become. As when the mind is absent but the body lives on, the pensive but vacant face of Grandfather explores the mechanics of Alzheimer’s disease; the pendulum oscillates to a steady rhythm, but time stands still for a broken clock.
Regardless of medium, all of von Buhler's pieces require the viewer to get involved: sometimes physically, by pulling a cord or inserting a coin to operate a machine, and at other times mentally, when the message sent strikes a chord with the viewer. The Artist is a disembodied mannequin head and wooden hand in a booth. The work takes your quarter, deliberates a moment, and then gives you a tongue-in-cheek assessment of your artistic temperament, dispensing a postage-stamp-sized example of your style. Cynth-O-Matic offers the brave a chance to buy one of various plastic capsules containing actual samples of the artist’s body hair and fluids from a gaily-decorated vending machine. The piece is von Buhler’s critique of those who attend art openings to chat with the artist and scarf hors d’ouvres while ignoring the art. An androgynous pair of gold-painted legs offers up a Viewmaster slideshow from its pubic region – the piece warns of sexually transmitted diseases by delivering a surprising visual twist. Lil’ Blast O’ Past conjures memories of trying to be grown up by dispensing three more ubiquitous men’s colognes from the 1980s with accompanying audio dialogue; many will remember the smells associated with their various suggested locales – locker room, prom date, and an infamous New York dance club. Though the artist works in numerous media, her pieces are uniform in that each piece provides incisive commentary, whether on morality, aging, vanity, politics, or the art world itself.
Regardless of medium, all of von Buhler's pieces require the viewer to get involved: sometimes physically, by pulling a cord or inserting a coin to operate a machine, and at other times mentally, when the message sent strikes a chord with the viewer. The Artist is a disembodied mannequin head and wooden hand in a booth. The work takes your quarter, deliberates a moment, and then gives you a tongue-in-cheek assessment of your artistic temperament, dispensing a postage-stamp-sized example of your style. Cynth-O-Matic offers the brave a chance to buy one of various plastic capsules containing actual samples of the artist’s body hair and fluids from a gaily-decorated vending machine. The piece is von Buhler’s critique of those who attend art openings to chat with the artist and scarf hors d’ouvres while ignoring the art. An androgynous pair of gold-painted legs offers up a Viewmaster slideshow from its pubic region – the piece warns of sexually transmitted diseases by delivering a surprising visual twist. Lil’ Blast O’ Past conjures memories of trying to be grown up by dispensing three more ubiquitous men’s colognes from the 1980s with accompanying audio dialogue; many will remember the smells associated with their various suggested locales – locker room, prom date, and an infamous New York dance club. Though the artist works in numerous media, her pieces are uniform in that each piece provides incisive commentary, whether on morality, aging, vanity, politics, or the art world itself.
|
|