NARRATOR:  

Curators John Zarobell and Gary Garrels. 

JOHN ZAROBELL:  

So this piece by Joel Shapiro, which is untitled, is a group of rectangular solids that are attached together, and they seem to almost be suspended in midair, as if there is some tension or force that’s holding them up or keeping them moving. It has a kind of active, animated aspect to it that makes you imagine that it’s not just a group of cubes, but in fact, an active figure moving through space. 

GARY GARRELS: 

This particular work by Shapiro is a very human scale. There’s almost a slapstick kind of quality to it, an almost clownlike quality, that this is someone kind of performing or somebody taken off balance that’s gonna have to just catch themselves, to right themselves, to get back in equilibrium. You know, so the sense of possible falling, of contingency, of fragility, is very much embodied in the piece and I think there’s a lot of humor in it.