Rosemarie Castoro, Black Flasher B, 1979

1979

Medium

Galvanized steel and paint

Dimensions

250 × 70 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156219

The abstract forms of the tall, expansive steel sculptures Black Flasher A and Black Flasher B (both 1979) derive from the modelling qualities of paper. According to a personal story, Castoro's mother had put a few $20 bills into a Coca-Cola bottle and sent it to her. Rosemarie Castoro then continuously crumpled the initially flat $20 notes and placed them upright on their narrow edges, playfully exploring the sculptural characteristics of the bills. The two Black Flashers are made of thin steel and painted with matt black acrylic paint. With these works, Castoro draws a link to her choreographic and body-related works from the mid-1960s, confirming her ongoing interest in the physical exploration of space and the relationship between bodies and geometry. In a post-minimalist manner, the geometric form (here the basic rectangular shape of the steel leaves) is used as a starting point and expanded by a sensual component by squeezing the steel and painting its surface. At the same time, it is supplemented with the personal and autobiographical element of the narrative about the process of creation; further sexualized by the title Flasher. The title refers to this physical quality of the sculptures and implies an inconspicuous physical exposure. This is a known characteristic of Postminimal artists: investigating abstraction in the form as a further development of Minimal Art, also in regard to the subjective and eroticized body and the individual psyche. The works were exhibited several times after 1979: in public spaces such as on sidewalks and squares in New York and Paris. The encounter with the viewer and the juxtaposition of physicality is an elementary part of the work. The works Black Flasher A and Black Flasher B were prominently featured in the two exhibitions at MACBA (2017) and MAMCO (2019).