Home Visual Arts Spectacle at the Viewing Room, Chelsea.

Spectacle at the Viewing Room, Chelsea.

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Memory and Oblivion, by Bonnie Rychlak

The next exhibition, Memory and Oblivion, offered not only intriguing art—but a built-in guessing game. Each of artist Bonnie Rychlak’s works were hand-tinted photographs hidden behind textured glass. The result were vague shapes and colors that were recognizable enough to grab your attention, but nebulous enough to keep you guessing at their true form and meaning. The largest of the pieces (at 27” x 34”) was The Lesson Redo: what at first I thought was cooking demonstration, I later surmised was a meeting of Mafioso. Perhaps it was both—the culinary Cosa Nostra. I stood in front of it for minutes, trying to figure out exactly what it was…until I felt the urge to pull off the glass that made it unknowable. Through a lack of clarity, Rychlak had clearly made an impact on me.

The evening left me with two hopes: the hope that I get to see more work by these artists, and the hope that I hadn’t unwittingly ruined someone’s dinner party.


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