In Ink Line, part of a new Charles Ray exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery, ink falls in a continuous line to the floor. Via 16miles.
Until June 27, the Matthew Marks gallery is home to an exhibition of three early works by Charles Ray.  Featured are Ink Line, Moving Wire, and Spinning Spot, constructed in 1987-88.  This exhibition is the first in which Ink Line is shown publicly, while Moving Wire and Spinning Spot are showing for the first time in over two decades.
Related links:
Charles Ray [ArtCat]
Charles Ray [Art + Culture]
Dude, You’ve Gotta See This [New York Magazine]
The Uncomfortably Great Charles Ray Show at Matthew Marks [The Village Voice: Bones]
Charles Ray at Matthew Marks Gallery [Art Observed, 2007]
Ink Line (1987) consists of a stream of ink that continuously falls from floor to ceiling. At first glance, the stream seems consistent — that is, static — but meticulous observers will note vacillations in flow. In Spinning Spot (1987), a section of the floor revolves at 33 rpm.  Visitors waver between seeing the floor revolve and uncomfortably seeing everything revolve but the floor. The ends of the 15-foot-length Moving Wire (1988) are loose from the wall. As one emerges from the wall, the other retreats.
Charles Ray’s Ink Line, via  New York Magazine .
Charles Ray’s Spinning Spot, via 16miles.
Above, another look at Ink Line, via 16miles.
Charles Ray was born in Chicago in 1953, and has been working as a sculptor and installation artist for about 35 years. Â His work often comments on isolation and containment as they comprise self-sufficiency, relative to integration. Consciousness, to him, is ephemeral, as evidenced by the works in this new show at Matthew Marks.
An image of the artist, via WMagazine.
Charles Ray, Moving Wire, via artnet.
The artist has previously collaborated with the Matthew Marks gallery. Â In 2006, he curated the museum’s “a four dimensional being field with sculptures.” Â A year later, Matthew Marks hosted his first solo show since a 1998 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
– Rivka Fogel
