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Stephen Wirtz Gallery

April 29 - May 31, 2009

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49 Geary Street 3rd Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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New Work
Palmbach is known for creating uncanny, psychologically charged objects using soft materials, such as surplus army blankets, muslin, and beeswax. With this exhibition, she has expanded her repertoire of materials with sculptures painstakingly carved from solid blocks of wood. These vaguely figurative objects seemingly exist in states of lethargic flux and inertia, defying the unyielding qualities of the material from which they were created. Other objects in the exhibition reference more familiar forms—sewn fabric objects that resemble cardboard containers and rolled up newspapers. Taken together, these works present a fable for uncertain times, a commentary on the particular burden of accumulation and the anxiety that comes from never having enough. The fabulist nature of the exhibition is driven home in a new work titled “The Big Bad Wolf.” This piece depicts a larger than life shadow puppet of a wolf, which appears to be projected onto an ordinary blanket. Referencing instinctual fears of becoming prey, it can be seen as representing an omnipresent evil—the metaphorical “wolf at the door”—a presence that is as illusive as it is threatening, one perhaps exaggerated by fear and paranoia. Palmbach’s recent works spring from an inner world, existing in a languid state of transition. The wood objects are organ-like, familiar yet non-specific. They are "boneless,” without supportive inner structures, and seemingly yield to their own gravity. They can be seen as expressions of a psychological state made dough-like, heavy and passive in the face of uncertainty.