Peter Coffin Untitled (Sculpture Silhouettes)

Populating City Hall Park with 13 monumental silhouettes of iconic sculptures, Untitled (Sculpture Silhouettes) by Peter Coffin (b. 1972, Berkeley, CA) takes the viewer on a journey through the history of sculpture in space and time. Variations on Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, an Easter Island moai, Louise Bourgeois’ Untitled (With Hand), one of Sol LeWitt’s Incomplete Open Cubes, and Pablo Picasso’s She Goat, among others, hover like apparitions throughout the park. Ranging in size from eight to ten feet tall, their commanding sculptural presence is somewhat of an illusion; each work is only one inch thick. The sculptures slip in and out of view, similar to the way in which memories slip in and out of one’s mind. The decision to hold the vision in place or let it fade is left to the viewer.

The Sculpture Silhouettes refer to timeless icons drawn from the history of art. In transforming famous works of art into flattened silhouettes, devoid of their original volume, Coffin engages the viewer to reflect and expand upon the associations evoked by each form. This idiosyncratic sculptural survey creates an environment in which variations on seminal sculptures are experienced in a new and unexpected context. Provoking an interplay of associations, the Sculpture Silhouettes prompt the viewer to project the present onto the past, suggesting that history is constantly being rewritten.

In the lobby of City Hall, miniature versions of each Sculpture Silhouette are installed on a single pedestal. Made of high polished stainless steel, the maquettes reflect one another and provide an index to the large-format sculptures outside.