ART: FUNK AND CHIC

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First, it dissolved the sculpture into a purely optical event. You don't imagine yourself touching the metal; it would be impertinent. You don't wonder whether it's heavy or light; you just see it rise. But you are also aware of what's reflected in its lower half--the room, people moving, colors. The upper part, aiming for the sky, is free of such sublunary accidents. It blooms and sparkles with light and is drawn upward. Light contradicts mass.

The history of art is full of sculptures that signify aspiration--through gesture, expression, movement. But this is different. The aspiration is part of the substance. No sculptor had embodied such a feeling before.