No paintings hang on the walls of the 1708 Gallery on Broad Street. Instead, massive concrete and wire sculptures undulate across the floor as a series of three short videos project on the gallery’s far wall.
The exhibition, “Drift,” is the work of South African artists Greg Streak and Ledelle Moe, a former VCU sculpture graduate student.
Oversized, organic terrain and head sculptures meet slow, detached and subtle video imagery in this unlikely pairing of media.
Moe’s grayish-tan sculptures take over the tiny space. Obvious tool marks give their surfaces texture and a sense of smoothness, yet their edges are crumbly. Concrete pushed through wire mesh looks kind of like carpet.
“The large, heavy forms appear to exemplify permanence and durability… Canopies of concrete billowing in frozen form unfurl into a rolling terrain whose topography coalesces into recognizable body or facial features,” Virginia MacKenny says in the exhibit catalog. MacKenny is a painting lecturer at the Michaellis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town.
The large pieces seem to be ruins, part of something bigger, of something that used to be greater. The influence of South African culture on Moe’s work is evident. She returns annually to re-connect with her roots.
Moe was born in Durban, South Africa in 1971. In 1996, she completed her master’s degree at VCU. Moe now teaches sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Her work has been exhibited in Stockholm, Sweden; Washington, D.C.; and Durban.
Streak’s videos are a trilogy of primary colors. Each piece shows the slow spread of a primary-colored liquid. One video is red, one yellow and one blue. The videos are short and have little action.
“Leaving (blue)” shows a blue puddle of water slowly creeping across the ground, to reveal a dark reflection of a man. “Jaundiced (yellow)” depicts feet floating at the bottom of a pool as a dark yellow stain diffuses in the water.
“Dreams in Red” is a close-up shot of a man’s face and shoulder as he lies face down on the ground, eyes closed. A pool of crimson seeps out from the his and covers the floor.
“While virtually nothing happens, the work is highly dependent on the temporal possibilities video offers and the small shifts in action that do occur: bubbles shimmering on a meniscus, the ripple across a surface as a breeze passes, the almost imperceptible passing of a bird seen against the sky through a window,” MacKenny said.
Streak lives in Durban. He received his master’s degree from the Durban Institute of Technology. Streak founded the artist-run initiative PULSE, has exhibited work internationally and has written for numerous publications. He currently teaches video and sculpture part-time at the DIT.
Gallery coordinator Maria Dubon said Moe is well known in the Richmond arts community. Dubon said a lot of Moe’s colleagues and past professors from VCU came out for the opening night celebrations.
Since the gallery was closed for the holidays and opened a week late, turnout at the opening was lower than on a typical First Friday.
“We usually get at least 1,200 people through the doors for each First Friday. This opening night was a little slower than usual. We only had 139,” Dubon said.
The installation opened Jan. 12 and continues through Feb. 24. The gallery is just a few blocks east of Belvidere Street, at 319 W. Broad St. The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The artists will be speaking at the gallery Friday, Feb. 2, at 5 p.m.