A Spiritual Experience

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David Altmejd, "The Vessel (detail)," 2011

plexiglas, chain, plaster, wood, thread, wire, acrylic paint, epoxy resin, epoxy clay, acrylic gel, granular medium, quartz, pyrite, assorted minerals, adhesive, wire, pins and needles, 102.5” x 244” x 86.5” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa ©David Altmejd Photo ©NGC

Nancy Wilson Ross, an expert on Eastern religions, once said: “Nothing can be asserted about Hinduism that cannot also be denied.” This same statement aptly summarizes David Altmejd’s intricate oeuvre. And, as in Hinduism, his head-spinning extravagance converges into deeply spiritual yet intensely modern mythmaking.

Such depth and breadth of vision helped catapult this Montreal-born artist, a 1998 graduate of the Université du Québec à Montréal, to the international stage. Now based in New York, Altmejd has exhibited at the Venice, Istanbul and Whitney biennials, among others. With his work in great demand, it’s something of a coup that the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton is showing his remarkable piece, The Vessel, on loan from the National Gallery of Canada, until Jan. 29.

This room-sized work, encased in Plexiglas, glows in the gallery’s dim light. Hair-thin threads amass into a flutter of effervescent wings. Swan necks emerge above, beaks and heads formed from the artist’s own plaster-cast hands. Within this translucent flurry are myriad objects – chains, shimmering crystals, coiled-wire intestines, pins and needles – all charged with an irresistible momentum. Contemporary gestures collide with references to Greek mythology (Leda or Icarus); the beautiful clashes with the gruesome; motion seems to erupt from static matter.

Ultimately, it’s like entering a temple: the cacophony of the street is soothed; paradox and commotion hushed. Here, when viewers face the perfect symmetry of The Vessel, the profane becomes sublime.