Joyce J. Scott, Breathe, 2014, hand-blown Murano glass, beads and thread, In the collection of Ruby City, San Antonio, TX
Waking Dream comprises significant works by Do Ho Suh, Leonardo Drew, Teresita Fernández, Wangechi Mutu and Cornelia Parker, as well as works by a number of San Antonio-based artists, including Ana Fernandez, Cruz Ortiz, Chuck Ramirez and Ethel Shipton. Mirroring the interests and character of Pace herself, Waking Dream underscores several themes reflected in the Linda Pace Foundation Collection, including the creative self, notions of home, vulnerability and resilience.
The eastern gallery features art works that reflect ideas of home and the everyday. Unexpected materials, distortions, and shifts in scale transform familiar images into gently surreal objects. Do Ho Suh’s Hub, 3rd Floor, Union Wharf, 23 Wenlock Road, London N1 7ST, UK (2016) anchors the space. This sheer fabric structure–at once imposing and ineffable–recreates the artist’s memory of his London apartment, illuminated as the glowing natural light spills into the galleries. Rachel Whiteread’s ghostly Untitled (Eight Shelves) (1995-1996)—a negative cast of rows of books—offers another version of memory and absence. Chuck Ramirez’s White 1and 2 (1998) are from a series of photographs featuring bagged garbage, considering ideas around ownership as well as the cycles of evolution and rebirth. Christian Marclay’s outsized Accordion (1999), with its extended bellows, and Marina Abramović’s Chair for Man and His Spirit (1993), which features a typical chair coupled with a towering perch for a “spirit,” play with scale to a fantastic effect. The scale of these works also draw viewers’ attention to the volume of Adjaye’s architecture and its cantilevered lens. Other artists on view nearby include: Maya Lin, Josiah McElheny and Linda Pace.
Another current of Waking Dream speaks to the human conditions of vulnerability and resilience. Cornelia Parker’s apocalyptic sculpture Heart of Darkness (2004), suspends the charred fragments of a forest destroyed in a fire into a blackened cloud. Robyn O’Neil’s ominous landscape, Staring into the blankness, they fell in order to begin (2008), suggests both portent and the possibility of rebirth. On a more intimate scale, Kim Jones’ graphite marks camouflage the surface of a classic dollhouse handcrafted by the artist, effectively erasing the comforting image of family and play. Glenn Ligon’s black text painting Stranger in the Village #11 (1998), simultaneously highlights and obscures James Baldwin’s passage about race and difference. Other artists nearby include: Isa Genzken and Per Kirkeby.
An artist herself, Linda Pace deeply admired the working processes and risk taking of other artists. Waking Dream highlights several works from the collection which emphasize act of creation and the image of the artist. Wangechi Mutu’s This second Dreamer (2017) suggests a self-portrait which links African and modernist references, placing the artist within a global context. Cruz Ortiz’s painted portrait of fellow Texas artist, Jesse Amado, spans two generations of makers within the San Antonio community and beyond. Ideas of creation, portrayed in the form of motherhood are exemplified in Joyce J. Scott’s glass sculpture, Breathe (2014). Natural images of light and regeneration also occur in works by Teresita Fernandez, Maya Lin and Lari Pittman.