The Plain of Heaven
Adam Cvijanovic, Trisha Donnelly, Shannon Ebner, Leandro Erlich, William Forsythe, Sol LeWitt, O. Winston Link, Gordon Matta-Clark, Corey McCorkle, Helen Mirra, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Adam Putnam, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Song Dong; Peter Eleey, curator
October 14–November 20, 2005
820 Washington Street
Image credit: Charlie Samuels
The Plain of Heaven, an exhibition inspired by the impending redevelopment of the High Line, a disused elevated rail structure that runs up the west side of Manhattan, engaged many themes to examine the railway’s impending transformation: how we imagine, and long for, inaccessible spaces; the relationships between transfiguration, destruction, and rebirth; the opposition between nature and the urban environment; and more generally, the way in which we remystify the world we already know.
The twin legacies of Gordon Matta-Clark and Robert Smithson—artists who refigured the industrial and urban landscape of the 1970s—animated much of the show, expanding upon similar concerns about the natural environment found in 19th-century sublime landscape painting and 18th-century notions of the “picturesque.” The exhibition’s title, adapted from a painting by British artist John Martin, refers to the idea of an elevated, sublime environment that lies just beyond our reach, yet is firmly planted in our aspirations and imagination, an apt reflection on the overall premise of the show.