Judy Pfaff’s current installation of wall-hung works is aptly titled “opsins,” after the tiny proteins that calibrate color within the eye’s light-sensitive retinas. Key elements in phototaxis, circadian rhythms, and other responses related to light sensitivity, opsins, which appear as curls and cords under the microscope, are found in the plant and animal worlds as well as the human. At first glance, the title seems to refer to Pfaff’s signature amalgams of twines and strips, but a second, closer look reveals a conceptual influence. Though filled with Pfaff’s typical energy, “opsins” is infused with a glowing vibrancy and color unusual for her frenetic forms. The exhibition hinges on gradations across light, color, and darkness, making it one of Pfaff’s most joyful bodies of work to date.
While color, light, and glass have long been formal and material elements in Pfaff’s work, light bulbs have only just started appearing alongside her characteristic syntheses of melted plastic, expanded foam, paper lanterns, wire, wood, and steel. Fish Story (2021) combines such familiar materials and introduces two light bulbs that bring everything together and cause the work to coalesce. On one side, a horizontal light shaft balances spindles of purple and magenta with orange strips of plastic. On the other side, a concentration of melted clear plastics glows in cast light. A loose twist of blue illumination dangles toward the floor, while cut swathes of rainbow-colored paper lanterns stretch and tangle across the wall. In between, caverns—formed as the materials pull away from each other and their supports—imbue the work with a sense of discovery. All color, texture, and mystery, Fish Story resembles a massive coral reef and recalls Deepwater (1980), one of Pfaff’s earliest installations. Installed at Holly Solomon Gallery and punctuated by bursts of materials, Deepwater was sharply angular and hectic; 41 years later, luminosity softens the edges and harmonizes chaos in Fish Story.
