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‘SERGE SPITZER: STILL LIFE’ ON VIEW AT ALDRICH MUSEUM

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RIDGEFIELD, CONN. — The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum presents a new installation by Serge Spitzer that will be on view in the Cornish Family Sculpture Garden through July 13.

Spitzer’s project, “Still Life,” which involves tens of thousands of tennis balls, is not simply a composition of static objects as the exhibition title suggests. The installation will animate both space and meaning as circumstances cause the tennis balls to travel through the world. The work is a demonstration of an imperceptible, almost viruslike “reality model,” acting as a physical metaphor for the way art interacts with everyday life.

For this installation Spitzer has worked closely with a Chinese manufacturer to produce custom tennis balls, which are printed with a military-inspired, pixilated camouflage pattern that originated in a photo of the museum’s lawn. Spitzer engaged in both the design and manufacturing process to ensure that each ball is unique: the printed pattern is not repeated on any of the balls. In April they were “hidden in plain sight” in a perfect, repetitive grid, clearly occupying the land but leaving it hauntingly empty at the same time.

As with many of Spitzer’s “viral sculpture” projects, the structure that the artist has set up will be transformed over time through uncontrolled and accidental forces: balls will be nudged out of place by visitors’ footsteps; children will be tempted to play or take an occasional one; the grass will grow, slowly obscuring the original precision and visibility.

At the end of the project the balls will be collected and returned for recycling, not only reclaiming the rubber and felt used in their manufacture, but perhaps more importantly, returning and releasing the air sealed within.

Aldrich curator Richard Klein says, “Although simple in plan and execution, Spitzer’s project has subtle social and political overtones. Playing off the grand tradition of engineered landscapes as vehicles for contemplation, Spitzer’s ‘Still Life’ is literally a field for thinking.”

The Aldrich will host a reception on Sunday, June 22, from 3 to 5 pm.

The museum is at 258 Main Street. For more information, www.aldrichart.org or 203-438-4519.