In the realm of physics, a black box entails an unknown system. In the realm of Lauren Fensterstock‘s art, a black box entails a direct glimpse into the unknown. Maybe a black hole is a more appropriate metaphor, as the gravity of Lauren’s cubes sucks the viewer into its inner environs, where charcoal-paper flora curl in a delicate descent.
Once you’ve fallen through the dark rabbit hole of Forays and Follies, at Leonard Pearlstein Gallery through August 28, there’s no turning back. You’re lost in a black-on-black world of grottos dripping with seashell stalactites, and kiku flower towers standing sentinel. You can almost hear James Earl Jones’ voice billowing fairy-tale lion wisdom across grassy paper plains, demanding that you look into the mirror-lakes and confront the darker side of your personal reality. A darker side that is none the less beautiful for its monochrome visions.
A series of sketches along one wall wrap up the exhibition in its beginnings, as brainstorms crash across its pages in intimate detail. It is here that the show finds its philosophical color balance, where blank slates give birth to dark realities.
