Michael A. Robinson

STAND UP TO BE DISCONTINUED
05.13–06.20.1999

Deconstructing what has already been deconstructed is the task bequeathed to the artist of our time. Michael A. Robinson makes this somewhat tragic dilemma the intrinsic fabric of his artistic exploration. Consequently, in light of the nihilism inherent in art’s self-referentiality, his work is imbued with a salutary irony. Within the deliberate heterogeneity of the installation, drawings resembling indecipherable, microscopic anagrams stand alongside cement paintings that reveal, in bas-relief, the residual outlines of images. Adjoining these is a central, rectangular volume the size of a small room. This white cube, whose interior is visible only through a narrow opening, thus reflects—as a counterbalance to the latitude left to the interpretation of the forms—a desire to control what is seen. Without spoiling the effect by revealing here what might be discovered within this volume, we can nevertheless suggest that it stems from a staging of the barren and the unfinished. From this perspective, the objects found within simultaneously display their potential for use and their profound uselessness. Ultimately, the gaze settles as best it can upon this collection of images and forms, which offer it a persistent yet rewarding resistance.